Resolutions
by aja
Summary: Self doubt and certain people's attitudes have gotten the better of Jackie during the Forman's New Year's party. Fez, being Fez, makes every effort to assuage her while the others take a second look at their own love lives.
1. Lovely One

_Disclaimer: I don't own the show, the characters, their copyrights, nada. I'm borrowing for the sake of amusing, arousing distraction and I have no money. So don't sue._

_You out there probably noticed this was a T-rated fic. Honestly? I've been inspired by all the dirrty, dirrty Steve n' Jackie stories (coughgah-lindacough) and I had to go for gold. Don't like Fez and Jackie fucking? Please don't read the fic. Grazie._

**Resolutions**

---

Generally speaking, Jackie Burkhardt had never adapted well to change. It didn't suit her; she just wasn't the type of branch to bend in the wind of life without giving it a firm, shrill piece of her mind. She preferred by far to be the tree that stood defiantly in the face of life's blistering hurricanes, staring them down and willing them to go away. Change, simply put, was not Jackie's thing.

Still, during four years of high school and endless days of stoned boredom in Eric's basement she'd been forced to endure and accept a staggering amount of it. Nothing at _all _had turned the way it should have. Bankruptcy had robbed her of both of her parents and the roofs over her head; with them went the security she'd adopted from her parents' prejudices, even the safety she'd sought out in other men's arms. Jackie sniffed, staring down at her hands folded in her lap. _Like mother, like daughter. Oh, the drama._

Well, okay, that she'd adapted to with a bit more ease; she _had_ been, as Forman himself so eloquently put it, the so-called Yoko to her friends' Beatles, after all. Her eyes flicked towards Fez out of unconscious habit and just as quickly darted away before he could catch her.

Honestly, how stupid had she been? Jackie shook her head and resigned herself to staring out the car window. It was like fate itself had tried to smack sense into her that night in the Kenosha disco. Hello, who was it dancing with her by the end of the night? Not Michael. Sure as hell not Steven.

Her train of thought derailed at the sensation of her hand being kissed, and then cradled. Her new "boyfriend" was smiling at her, illuminated only by the somewhat impersonal glow of the dashboard light. Jackie inwardly shoved aside the old tingle of unease and smiled back with uncharacteristic shyness.

"What are you thinking about?"

She bit her lip and looked back down at her lap. "You," she said without hesitation.

"Me?"

"Yeah."

"That's kind of unusual for you."

Flames of embarrassment burned her face. "Well, can't a girl change her mind without getting snarked at left and right?"

He laughed, gently. "Not in your case, no."

"Shut up."

"You see? Who's doing the snarking now, prissy-pants?"

"Shut _up!_" The back of her hand stung his bicep with an indignant smack; Fez yelped and slapped her upper thigh in retaliation. "Ay, Jacqueline! You know your bite hurts way more than your bark!"

Her thigh tingled; she writhed her way out of the seatbelt's grasp to snuggle against him as best she could. "Please. I only bite when asked," she admonished, tracing an invisible line on his thigh with one finely manicured nail.

"Hm." Jackie felt his body shifting to the side underneath her and snickered to herself; he was so easy to get a rise out of. One glance at _his_ lap proved this to be true in the literal sense. "Better be careful what you say to me, Jackie." Fez let his hand drift down to bare the small of her back and stroke her skin with an almost devious intent. "Or else those prissy little pants of yours may end up coming off tonight."

Jackie snorted and administered a second slap. "God, Fez, you're such a one-track mind!"

"And you know you love it."

The car shuddered to a stop alongside the Forman's front yard; she hadn't realized they'd even left the highway. Fez cut the engine, leaving them in pregnant silence. Jackie sat up.

"Maybe I do," she conceded with a barely hidden smile, "but I love it more when you behave yourself, okay?"

"We'll see," he cracked, and swooped in to steal a kiss that turned itself into a long, slow tease. Flames of embarrassment morphed into lust so searing it made her gasp into his mouth; it only encouraged him to deepen the kiss. Her hips shifted of their own accord, trying to wriggle away the pooling coils of heat gathering in extremely intimate places. God, had it really been _that_ long? Nah. Must've been some vertigo or something from being up on that water tower.

"I mean it," Jackie reminded him breathlessly when they separated. Fez graced her with a broad smile and bent to nibble at her neck. Tiny shards of pleasure pierced the base of Jackie's spine, and it took all the nerve she had to keep her body from noticeably trembling.

"So do I." With that, he planted a laughably platonic kiss on the end of her nose and heaved himself out of the vehicle. Jackie sighed, her body cooling the second his left her proximity, and tried to reassemble her fractured sense of reason.

_This is only your _first_ official day as a couple, Jackie Beulah_, she berated herself silently as Fez came around to open the door for her. _And this is _not_ just about sex, not this time. Get your shit together._

"Right," she whispered, and gave a start upon realizing he'd heard her.

"What?" he asked, still sporting that cocky, I-know-you're-melting grin. Jackie beamed at him and gave his shoulder a brisk pat. "Nothing! Nothing. Let's just go inside."

"Sure."

She strode off for the front door, not allowing him to catch up for fear of being manhandled right there on the Forman's lawn - possibly with the Formans inside watching the whole thing. Jackie stabbed at the doorbell and waited...waited. Somewhere inside the house Kitty's laugh rang out, and Jackie closed her eyes. _Come on. Please._

Fez came up from behind her then and tilted her head back to plant a mercifully chaste peck on her lips. Jackie beamed up at him. Now this change, this was decidedly more positive. Imagine, having a boyfriend who _didn't_ add to her issues for once. What a concept.

His arm laid itself across her shoulders, nudging her close. Jackie wholeheartedly accepted his embrace and sighed with relief, hearing someone's footsteps at last approaching the door.

"You seem nervous."

Jackie looked at him, startled. "What? No! Why?"

Fez gave a shrug that passed for playful. "Just...well, you know." He nodded towards the black El Camino lurking at them from its roost next to the Vista Cruiser. Jackie swallowed. So far she'd been able to ignore the Camino's owner, along with most of the hurt feelings that cropped up whenever she looked at either one. But now with Michael here to unwittingly egg Steven on...she knew Fez had a point.

"I-I'm fine," Jackie stuttered, rising on her tiptoes to kiss his cheek. "I just need you to hold my hand, that's all. Just in case." All of a sudden she was painfully aware of his closeness again, especially the fact that his hips, those sculpted disco-dancing hips, were perfectly aligned with hers. A little _too_ perfectly. Jackie blinked and caught her breath. _God_. _That can't possibly all be his wallet. _

"I would be honored to." Another kiss on the hand; Jackie shot him a suspicious glance.

"What?"

"You're being too much of a gentleman." Her eyes narrowed. "What are you plotting?"

"Okay, now you're just being paranoid. No more film for you."

Damn him. That grin just oozed sex and he knew it melted away every ounce of her bitchy reserve. The grin widened. "Will you relax? I promise, nothing fancy in public."

"You promise?"

"Jackie, I just told you I did."

"Uh-huh." Her facial muscles relaxed only slightly. "I'm holding you to that, foreign boy. No...fanciness...until we get home."

"Aha. So that's when you'll let me get to second base!"

"Mmmm, play your cards right and I'll let you get wherever you want." Jackie reached to stroke the side of his face and rose up on tiptoes to kiss him again - hey, no such thing as too much practice. Fez, bless him, immediately took the hint and embraced her with full-on passion. God, she _loved_ that about him; he adapted so quickly to her wildly shifting wavelengths and never judged a one. Their tongues danced, dueled. Jackie's knees begged to collapse out from under her.

"...don't care how you do it, Red Forman, you just get more champagne in this house or - "

The door suddenly swung open, bathing the couple in harsh electric light. Kitty Forman stopped dead in the midst of her tirade and stared for a moment before letting out a little startled laugh.

"Well! Aren't - aren't you two just a couple of overzealous lovebirds!"

Back came the flames of embarrassment. Jackie stuttered, looking from Fez to Kitty and back to Fez again. Realizing his palm had reached her breast, she hastily pushed it away and straightened up. "Hi, Mrs. Forman! Um, happy new year!"

"Yeah, looks like." That, of course, was good old Steven shoving his two cents in. She glared at him with trademark resentment, but he'd already gone back to rooting around in the cooler for fresh cans of Budweiser. Typical. Jackie inhaled sharply and grabbed Fez's hand to lead him inside. He squeezed hers in a gesture of support, and her next breath came just a tiny bit easier.

"Just ignore it," he whispered to her as they entered. She nodded at him gratefully and left his side to change into her dress in the upstairs bathroom. "I'll be right back, babe," Jackie told him, and was answered with a taut slap on her backside. She squealed and whirled on him, biting back her pleased smile. "Fez! Come on, you promised."

Fez shot her a wink, and Jackie sighed, turning to climb the rest of the stairs. _This,_ she said to herself, _is going to be a very long night._

---

"So I'm guessing you've gotten past that 'first official kiss' by now." Donna leaned over in Red's chair to retrieve a beer, her third of the night, and cracked the can open. She took a swig. "Y'know. Judging by the way you were mauling each other on the front step there."

Jackie rolled her eyes. "Stuff it, moose."

"Oh, and can't forget that ass-slap on the stairs. That looked like fun."

"Please, you should talk. You were laid up with Eric in the Vista Cruiser for like, hours!"

"Jackie, for Christ's sake, I hadn't seen him in a year! I hadn't even _kissed_ him in forever; I missed him, okay?"

"Oh, no. Don't tell me you and he..."

"In the Cruiser _and_ in my stark, empty shell of a bedroom, yes. Bob wasn't home and so we took advantage." Glowing, Donna knocked back another sip and sighed. "Sweet, sweet advantage."

Jackie helped herself to another glass of champagne and settled back into the couch cushions. "Way, way too much information, Pinciotti."

"At least we didn't do it in front of a living room full of people."

"Hey, yeah! And this time the cops didn't even show up. I'm _so_ proud of you."

"Yeah, well, you li-ike Fe-ez..." Donna sang under her breath.

"Very good. But now that I'm actually _with_ him, Donna, that doesn't work anymore."

"Fez and Jackie, sittin' in a tree..."

Jackie launched a throw pillow in the bottle-blonde's direction, hitting her in the face. Donna squawked and stood up to throw it back just as all four boys came tumbling through the kitchen door. Donna froze and plunked back down; Jackie snickered.

"All right, girl fight!" Michael crowed, throwing his fists in the air. "Finally some bitchin' New Year's entertainment!"

"Hell yeah." Steven climbed over the back of the couch and hovered over Jackie. "I volunteer my services as referee." Animosity gleamed in his eyes. "Let's get it on, whad'ya say, Jacks?"

Jackie glowered at him. "I say 'fuck off and die' would pretty much cover it, Steven."

Michael burst out laughing. "Ooh-hoo-hoo, _burn_!"

Stifling an irritated sigh, Fez came around the couch and sat on one side of Jackie. Donna sat on the other. Wisely, Steven decided to back off and returned to trading crackpot conspiracy theories with Eric and to a much lesser degree, Michael. The dust settled, and quiet, almost amiable chatter helped to keep the temporary illusion of peace.

One hour and another glass of champagne later, though, all Jackie wanted was to curl up in the fetal position and cry. For one, she'd forgotten how much she hated New Year's Eve. It was just a pointless celebration of change to her, and change to Jackie was _not_ something to party over. Usually she'd manage to shove these old hurts aside and live it up with the best of them, but tonight, between those constant "garden gnome" comments from Steven and the tactless belly laughs they prompted from Michael, her tenuous patience had strained to the point of snapping in half.

Jackie took a nice long swig from her glass and tried to concentrate on Fez, who had been discreetly massaging her upper thigh in hopes of soothing her. She exhaled hard and nestled her head in the crook of his shoulder. She could almost feel Steven's eyes boring holes through her skin.

"Hey, Kelso. Tell me again about the Mustang, the Ferrari, and the Donkey Cart."

Jackie's stomach twinged at that oozing, pointed sarcasm. That, and Michael's painfully familiar squawk. "C'mon, Hyde." His voice was slurred from excess Bud, either liquid or flora variety. "You don't really wanna hear that old story again, do you?"

Steven gave a snort. "Sure I do." He stabbed a thumb at the trio on the couch. "They all missed it, so you gotta tell it again, man."

To his credit, Eric cast Jackie and Fez a doubtful glance. "Yeah, I don't know, Hyde. I don't think that's the greatest idea in the world."

"Aw, Forman, be a sport. There's a bunch of brightly colored Mexican blankets in it for you if you guess the punch line," said Steven. Both he and Michael dissolved into snickers Jackie recognized as the kind cheerleaders employed to make scapegoats of their victims. Her temple throbbed; Fez tightened his grip on her thigh. Had to be cool. Had to keep Zen about this.

_Oh, Zen, my fine ass! I'll give you Zen, Steven, in the form of this stiletto heel jammed up your tailpipe sideways. And I'll give it a nice hard twist just for that slut of a "wife" you tried rubbing in my face, you jealous burnout man-whore. You can't just make up words, Hyde._

From the bar, Mr. Forman checked his watch and cleared his throat as a warning. In two strides he'd simultaneously restocked the cooler and switched on the television with his free hand. The tinny replicated sound of crowds screaming in Times Square and Dick Clark's less-than-enthusiastic commentary filtered into the living room while the snickers of both her ex-boyfriends continued unabated.

"Come," Fez said to her quietly. "Let's go sit by the stairs, yes?"

"Yes," Jackie replied, exchanging glances with Donna. "Good idea."

_Don't worry,_ Donna mouthed to Jackie as Fez led her away. _I'll take care of the dillholes._

Jackie stifled a laugh and closed her eyes. Donna was a moose, all right, but a sweet moose who came in handy at times. No sooner did she turn her back on the scene than a sharp slapping sound was heard, followed by Michael's insulted guffaw.

"Damn, Donna! What did I do?"

Another slap, and this time Steven guffawed. Jackie giggled.

"Just quit being a douche and I'll stop beating you. Deal?"

"How in the hell am I being a - " Slap, slap. "Ow, Christ! Okay, okay..."

Jackie paused at the foot of the stairs; her new vice had already made it halfway up and stopped dead upon realizing his own vice wasn't following.

"Jacqueline?" Fez came back down a step or two and bent to look her in the eyes. "What's the matter?"

"Nothing...why are you going upstairs? Weren't we just going to sit down?"

"I thought you'd want to get away."

"Yeah, I do. I just..." Jackie's gaze reverted to her two exes. "I just don't want to have to hear about it later."

Fez gave a long sigh and sat down near the top of the stairwell. "Come here," he entreated, patting the empty space beside him. Jackie complied. He pulled her close and kissed the top of her head.

"Fez, I hate New Year's Eve," she professed. "I absolutely loathe it."

He'd begun stroking her hair. "Because of them?"

"No...oh, I don't know." Jackie's breath came out shuddery. "Because of everything, I guess, that I've lost. Daddy. The help. My mom. My old house."

"Your sense of security."

Okay, why did he always seem to acquire that weird, intuitive maturity at the worst possible moment? It was eerie, and annoying. Her lips pursed; she opted for another sip of bubbly. "My mom used to totally pride herself on her holiday parties. Every New Years' Eve my dad would hole up in his study with a bunch of his business associates so Mom could lounge around with all her little socialite friends. I used to hide behind the piano after I'd been sent to bed so I could listen to all their glamourous tales of traveling the world and maxing out their husbands' credit cards. 'Course, that was when I didn't have to clean them all up after they'd gotten passed-out drunk." Jackie bit her lower lip, wrestling back frustrated tears. Why was she telling him all of this? _Note to self: Chardonnay and vertigo do not mix well with bad memories and forbidden love._

"Anyway, this kind of stuff - " she motioned at the festivities in the living room - "just makes it

weirder. Especially with the end of the decade and all."

"Yeah, I know." Fez gathered her into his arms. "And I'm sorry."

"It's okay," Jackie lied. "I'll get over it."

"Oh please, you'll get _through_ it," Fez corrected gently. "You've got family right here - you know even Hyde and Kelso, in their own dillhole ways, wouldn't let anything happen to you. As for me..." Jackie let him tilt her face up to his for another slow kiss. Her head swam. "Look, I was dumb enough to lose you once. I'm not going to lose you again."

"You're so sweet to me," Jackie sighed. Her chest felt as though someone were sitting on it. She turned away from him to watch through the railing's bars as Michael and Steven fell back into their old beat-the-village-idiot routine, while Eric and Donna mocked them both. "But Fez, Michael and Steven - they - they just think I'm easy now. That I've used them both and bounced from bed to bed. But I didn't _do_ that, I just - I didn't mean to, I got distracted. My life swallowed me up. I - I got confused!"

"Jackie."

"I mean, it's not like I don't _know_ how stupid I've been, okay? I know I've been a rich bitch, a snob, a slut, whatever." She made a sound between a groan and a sob. "And I've treated you like shit in the process."

"Jackie..."

Jackie closed her eyes and exhaled, cradling the half-empty wine glass between her breasts. "Fez, it's not true, I'm _not_ what they think," she repeated, hastily smearing away the tracks of her tears. "I'm so sorry I've been such a cruel bitch, and I swear to God you're_ not _my rebound, you're not my last resort, you're - "

"_Jackie._" Fez cupped her chin in his palm. "You really think I don't know that? Look, we've been through this, my pet, a hundred times. You might as well stop worrying about what they think - it's all just the same old jealous bullshit." She allowed him to pull her into his arms again. "Believe me when I tell you that you're no one's easy lay."

A faint smile brightened Jackie's features and then vanished again. "Fez, if we went upstairs now, it'd only prove Steven and Michael right; that all I want is sex. That I'm just like my mother. That I am nothing but a shallow, whiny, stupid whore."

"Oh, Jacqueline, please don't say that." Fez looked pained. He took her hand. "If we went upstairs right now, it would only mean that this was meant to happen. To rewrite history."

With an air of sadness he bent to kiss her neck, biting gently at her sensitive spots. Jackie sighed, half from bliss and half from relief. "Maybe...ooh, that's nice...maybe you're right." She held her arm outstretched at an angle to prevent spilling her drink. "I mean, really, how long did it take for you to get through to me? How long did it take my blind ass to see things clearly?"

"Forever," Fez quipped. Jackie glanced over to see him smiling at her softly. "But you're beating yourself up for things that couldn't be helped. These things, you know...they _do _happen for a reason." His eyebrow raised; Jackie found herself trembling at the new frequency in his voice, a low, insinuating tone that set her off like a human tuning fork. Fez leaned in to kiss her again and paused, hovering close enough to share her breath.

"And that is?" The words came out as a bare whisper; she could feel the laugh that resulted.

"That you, my love, are more than worth the wait," he said, and brushed his lips just so against hers, tickling her lips with wet, feather-light kisses. Jackie gave a little moan and grabbed the back of his head without warning, practically slamming his lips down on hers. His body rose up to meet her, driving their embrace into dangerously passionate territory right there on the stairs.

"I love you, Jackie," he whispered to her between pauses for air. "More than anything."

"More than candy?" she whispered back.

"You _are_ my candy." He murmured against her neck, making her shiver. "Maybe we should be upstairs after all?"

Jackie closed her eyes. Both his hands had slipped beneath her skirt, caressing her bare thighs with lazy movements. She writhed underneath him; true to cliche, the sudden motion sent what was left of the champagne spilling over the front of her dress. "Oh! Oh, no, Fez, wait, my dress!" She made an attempt to blot the liquid away with her hand. "Damn!"

"Yeah, damn." His hand leisurely joined hers in the attempt. By the time her plunging neckline was reached, she was shaking inside. He'd cupped her breast and was now rubbing the pad of his thumb over its stiffening tip. "Pity. Now it has to come off." Shamelessly the heat of his mouth replaced his hand, tasting what had absorbed into the fabric. Sensations akin to electric shocks tore up through her nerve endings; Jackie could do nothing but clutch at his shoulders.

"Fez." She cringed at how weak her voice sounded. "Fez, what are you doing."

Dark, warm eyes glittered up at her from between her swells. "You wanted romance, spontaneity, no?" So saying, he exposed her other nipple to the air and dared to lick around it, nipping at it, teasing her. "Well, now you have both."

Oh, no. Oh, God, here she was, splayed on the top of the stairs where any passing Forman or guest could catch a glimpse of this. Jackie grabbed her lover and pulled him back up to eye level, kissing him with savage lust. Her legs parted of their own accord to let his body weight pin her down; Fez pushed his hips against hers in sensuous, promising motions. Oh, my, no, that hadn't been his wallet at _all._ Jackie moaned into his mouth at the feel of that erection rubbing slowly against her now-throbbing core.

"Shhh," Fez warned her, letting his hand slip between her legs. "They'll hear you, my love."

Knowing fingertips just barely pressed on her clit, rubbing her in little circles, driving her hips up to meet him. "Mmmm, you like that?"

Jackie purred an affirmation, biting down on her lip hard enough to draw blood. His pace slowed, then quickened in time to the rhythms of her body; she swallowed a gasp at each surge of tingling, throbbing wet warmth. Fez smiled down at her.

"This excites you, doesn't it, Jackie?" His whisper sounded almost strained. "I wonder what they'd do if they found us here, with your skirt around your waist..." Fez nudged the garment up and out from under her. "Maybe with me between your gorgeous thighs, drinking...the sweetest kind of wine. That is, if you'd let me."

Shuddering heat spread through her melting clit right up into the depths of her core. God, she was so close already, just from that aphrodisiac of a voice, and the memory of one blissful, tongue-rolling kiss in a darkened movie theater had her craving to know how that kiss would feel below the belt.

"We need," Jackie panted, "a bed for that."

"Are you sure?" Another hard kiss, disengaged by Fez sucking gently on her bottom lip. "I don't want to _force_ you to go upstairs...we could just stay here instead." She watched as he wet two fingers and slipped them down inside her panties. "Imagine if Michael and Steven caught us."

Jackie quivered as he stroked her, smothering her moan in the crook of his neck; what was he _doing_, was he insane? But oh, how many times had she begged Michael to tease her, talk to her a little just so she could get off? And Steven, forget it; it was like fucking a rock. This...this was fantasy coming to life, and fast.

"They'd have to watch, Jackie," Fez whispered. "They'd have to watch me make you come, hard, like neither of them ever could." Her back arched; thrilling spasms of heat shot up through her loins as he massaged her steadily, intent on keeping his word. "On my fingers...my tongue...maybe even...you know."

"Please." She wasn't sure if she meant for him to stop or to urge him on, but either way the spasms were deliciously increasing. Jackie's nails bit into his shoulders as her womb and her clit throbbed along to the rhythm of her blood. "Oh...oh, Fez, I think I'm...I'm going to..."

"That's it, do it for me, baby..."

"...and if you morons don't cut the crap, I'm gonna throw you out on your ear. But not before I plant my foot up both of your asses!"

Red's voice at the foot of the stairs stopped her cold mid-climax and paralyzed them both. Jackie's heart thudded away in her chest; if Eric's dad was the one that got to see this, guaranteed neither of them would live to see 1980.

"We _need_ a bed," she repeated in a whisper, meeting his eyes. Fez glanced down at the living room, licked his lips, and nodded. Jackie grabbed his slick hand and tried to stand upright on legs that had seemingly turned to water. Fez steadied her with his body weight and let her guide him up the stairs.

"Where?" He asked, nibbling at her earlobe.

"Anywhere," Jackie begged. "Just do me already!"

Fez's laugh was exquisitely mocking. "So eager, aren't we, my pet?" His hands took their time exploring her soft, hypersensitive contours, slowly moving up from her hips to cup her breasts. "What's your hurry?" Another laugh as he seized her roughly. "Don't tell me you want to fuck right here against the wall."

Jackie moaned, thrilled at his sudden ferocity. Her sex was liquid fire. "Anywhere," she repeated, reaching behind her to stroke his erection. A sharp hissing intake of breath rewarded her as she worked him through his jeans. Both of them leaned for the nearest wall for support; she helped him hike her skirt around her waist. His fingertips hooked themselves under her panties and dragged them down just past her hips; she felt her legs being parted at an angle. Jackie's gaze traveled anxiously back and forth across the hallway. Which room was safest - Eric's? The idea made her recoil out of instinct. The Formans' bedroom made her equally ill. So where? The shower? Oh, too messy, too complicated right now. Later. If she survived this.

"Laurie's old room?" Fez suggested in a whisper. Jackie considered this, or she tried to - it was so hard to think straight when he was touching her like that, God.

"I...oh! Oh, Fez, come _on_..." He'd begun stroking at her dripping entrance, pushing into her ever so slightly. He wouldn't. He would _not_ finger her here in the hallway with her face to the wall.

"So am I playing your cards right, Jackie?" The digit delved in a bit farther; Jackie bucked her hips back against him and inadvertently impaled herself on it, gasping at the invasion. She felt his laugh on the back of her neck. "I suppose that's a yes." Slowly he probed inside her tight channel, searching, trying for the spot that would have her screaming. Jackie fought for air.

"Baby, no, please," she breathed, trying to push him away. "Laurie's room. Now."

She tensed, expecting a second finger to invade her, and sucked in a startled breath when he stopped. Together they lurched across the hall for the first door within reach, practically falling through when Fez pushed it open. Jackie shut it behind them and was immediately thrust up against the wood. She threw her arms around his shoulders and kissed him, hard, starving for consummation. Fez pushed the straps of her dress off her shoulders, leaving her nude from the waist up; the fabric dangled low around her hips. She moaned, arching her bare breasts up to his ravenous mouth. One leg crept up to wrap around his back as he suckled her, grazing her taut nipples with gentle teeth. Her hips rocked against him.

"We'd better have a good explanation for this," she panted. "They're gonna be mad."

"Do you really care?" He laughed, kissing the smooth valley between her cleavage. Jackie reached for his shirt and tore it open with determined force, sending most of the buttons ricocheting in all directions. "Fuck, no," she responded, and claimed his mouth with hers while her hands greedily roamed the expanse of his bared flesh. His skin felt hot to her touch, feverish. Even in the darkness she knew he was smiling.

"That's the second shirt you've ruined on me, you know."

"Mmmm. Pity. Now it has to come off," came Jackie's silken retort. He gave a warm growl, coming back up for air and caressing both breasts at once. The shirt fluttered to the floor. She felt him kneel before her and closed her eyes; invisible butterfly wings beat furiously inside her lower abdomen.

"Jacqueline..." Fez murmured, asking permission with a light kiss below her navel. Chills shot up through the core of Jackie's body and paralyzed her with lust. She remained utterly still, allowing Fez to ease her soaked panties down her legs and help her step out of them. One shoe dropped to the floor, then the other; appreciative caresses tickled the petite arch of her foot. Jackie giggled and threw her head back with a contented sigh. Wet warmth enclosed the tip of her big toe, sucking it in completely before moving on to the next. Her mouth went dry. Fez slid one leg up over his shoulder and braced Jackie securely against the door, leaving her defenseless and very exposed to his will.

"Please," he purred. Wet, teasing kisses flickered their way slowly, insanely slowly, down towards where she burned for him. "Please, Jackie, let me."

Her heart palpitated. Fez cupped her sex again, barely making contact, and rubbed at her clitoris gently with his middle finger. She convulsed with a shuddering gasp, overwhelmed by the sudden throbbing rush inside her. "Oh God, Fez...I thought we needed a - oh! right there!...a bed...or...ohhhh...something..."

"Apparently not."

Jackie could only manage a pleading whimper and a roll of the hips. She heard him laugh low in his throat and forgot how to breathe, yet somehow still thought to roll her skirt up around her waist for easier access. The faster he stroked her, the faster those tingling spasms rocked her from the inside out. Her sighing mewls of pleasure became uncontrollable squeals. Jackie clenched her teeth against the onslaught of hot sensation and growled her lover's name, demanding release.

"That's right," Fez crooned, working her mercilessly. "That's a good girl. Just wait until I get you home, Jackie...I'm going to have you screaming for it."

_Jesus. _"Fez. Fez, please. I can't take it..."

Another low laugh. She felt her lips being parted by apparently expert fingers and knew what was coming, but still the shock of being tasted made her go rigid. His tongue flickered and swirled, savoring her taste, driving her wild with need. Vibrations of knowing laughter rippled up into her trembling womb as her little wet bundle of flesh was sucked into his mouth like a sweet. Jackie squirmed in his steady grip; her throat actually hurt from repressing a shriek. The sensations throbbing inside her alternated to his primal rhythm: fast lick, slow suck, lick, lick, very slow suck. She heard herself begging, crying his name repeatedly in an eerie mantra, and wondered on a very distant level if this was why poor Caroline had gone so psychotic for him.

There wasn't time to wonder for long; one hard, slow, calculated lick at her thrumming clit made her erupt with an ecstatic white-hot spasm, devouring up through her sex and driving out of Jackie a tormented cry. The spasm rocked her again, and again, until she saw blue lights swimming lazily in the darkness. Her moans quieted as she slid towards the floor. Fez caught her in both arms and kissed her deeply, slowly, letting her taste the intimate musk and honey on his tongue. Jackie uttered a weak moan and clung to his shoulders, trembling.

"Have I ever told you how much I love when you roll your r's?" she finally rasped.

"Mmmm...no, I don't believe you have."

She sighed, nestling her face against his chest. "Well, I do. And you - you're amazing."

"Oh, stop it, I'm blushing."

He kissed her again, obliging in a few light rolls of his tongue; Jackie gave a purring moan and licked the taste of herself from her lips. Her eyes darted back and forth, attempting to focus in the black room. "Baby, there _is_ still a bed in here, right?"

Dark, arousing laughter as Fez hoisted her up into his arms. "Of course there's a bed. What's with you and beds?"

"You're carrying me to one. Do the math, foreign stud."

With exquisite care he laid her tiny body on the mattress. Still shaking, Jackie stripped herself of what remained of the wine-stained dress and waited, impatiently, for her foreign stud to shed the rest of his clothing She heard his belt buckle hit the floor and shivered, wishing the lights were on so she could see him, all of him, and return the favor. The very thought prompted a delightful shudder. Jackie sensed his nearness and couldn't help reaching out to touch him, to travel the defined contours of turgid muscle. She let her palms slide across his chest, down and around to cup his ass, delighting in his nervous shiver when she raked her nails across his skin. _I have to make it up to him. All of it. Oh, yes._ Jackie rose up and draped her arms over those broad shoulders, teasing him with a deep, searching kiss.

"Fez," she whispered against his mouth, "come to me."

Fez inhaled sharply and complied. Her fingers slid around his hot shaft and stroked tentatively, lightly. She felt him respond with a jerk of the hips and smiled. So easy. Jackie curled around and crept to the edge of the mattress on all fours. Her neck twinged uncomfortably from this angle, but oh, it'd be worth it. Bending just so, she took a moment to let her mouth water in anticipation - and let _him_ hang in the balance for once.

He was trembling, damp with a tense sheen of sweat. "Jackie..."

"Yes?" She ran the tip of her tongue across the glans, her clit responding eagerly to the taste of his wet salt. His body tensed; she heard him gasping for breath. Jackie lowered her head and tasted him again, taking just the tip between her moistened lips. A high-pitched, almost canine sound resulted, followed by a startled squeak when she applied a hint of suction. _What do you know. I _do _like a squeaker._ Jackie sighed happily and swirled her tongue as she took him in deeper; her hand drifted down to her swollen center, urging herself on with light, sure strokes.

"Ay...ay, my God, Jack - Jackie, please." He sounded desperate; she loved it. _I bet you've been fantasizing about this all this time, haven't you, baby? That makes two of us._ She took a deep breath, hollowed her cheeks, and sucked him in until she felt him at the back of her throat. His groan was rough, guttural. Animal. She repeated the action once, twice; his fingers tangled themselves in her curls with a caress. Unconsciously she stroked herself faster, moaning around him at each building tremor. The rhythm of her mouth fought to keep up, as did the aborted thrusts of his hips. Jackie gasped and bucked at a particularly sharp tingling pull inside her.

"Jackie?" Fez sounded amused, and way beyond the huskiness of need. "You're not...oh, good God, you are, you kinky little..."

Jackie squealed as his hand joined hers. Her hips jerked up spasmodically, and the luscious fiery tingles surged so hard they made her dizzy. "Easy, baby," Fez managed to croon. "Easy. Take it slow. Take your time."

Impatient now, she moaned again and spread herself wider, raising her ass in the air. Her mouth resumed its rhythm of sweet torture, sucking him slowly, teasing him to the point of eruption and then shifting pace. His hand was pressing her strokes firmly to her demanding little clit, manipulating her movements, keeping her on edge. Jackie smiled to herself; two could play that game. She bent lower to tease the swelling velvet pouches underneath, licking, making him wet enough to gently suck into her mouth. Fez's breath exploded in a hoarse, shuddering cry, and then another. Jackie sucked him again and felt him shaking uncontrollably.

"Jac-_kie_...!"

She taunted him with a predatory laugh as her mouth again returned to his shaft. Another telling spurt of salt; Jackie paused, sucking it away with a practiced whirl of the tongue, and took him down her throat again. Oh, she'd let him come, all right, when she was good and ready to milk him dry. But the fingers rubbing her clit had other ideas, sliding inside her in one deft maneuver and gently fucking her to the rhythm of her mouth. Her whole body instantly contracted with pleasure; throbbing and breathless, Jackie moaned around his length..

"You need to move over for me," the aphrodisiac voice commanded. His fingers grazed her g-spot; her eyes flew open. "Now."

Without a sound she let him slip from her mouth. Jackie backed away, practically writhing with anticipation as Fez sank beside her on the bed.

"Lie back."

She obeyed him, settling back into the lone pillow. Delicately, Fez parted her legs and bent down for another taste of her; Jackie reared up with a cry of protest.

"Relax." Laughter. "I just needed one more taste." His fingers again filled her throbbing void, resuming the fucking rhythm and making her melt with relief. One stroke, then two more, and then a deep, searching press up inside her clenching walls; Jackie cried out.

"Is that it? Right there?"

He pressed up again, gently. Jackie nearly leapt off the bed. "Oh God...that's it, yes! Yes!" His fingers moved faster, in a circular motion, coaxing her urge to urinate into a searing throb that seemed to vibrate her very womb. Her hips rose and fell, rose and fell as the fiery inner ache intensified unbearably. Gasping, Jackie snatched the pillow out from under her as she felt herself begin to burst. "Fez," she moaned, writhing. "Fez, I need you now."

He rubbed her faster, harder. "What do you need?"

"Need..._you_," she managed. Flowing, keening, she bit down on the cushion and tried to brace herself. Vaguely she was aware of Fez's weight shifting beside her.

"_What_ do you _need_?" His tongue joined his fingers for exquisite emphasis; Jackie convulsed, crying for him, drenched in sweat as he licked and fucked her simultaneously. The pillow fell away.

"I-I need you to fuck me."

"Say it again."

"_Fuck me._"

Jackie gulped air into her lungs. His tongue at last deserted her; faintly there was the sound of a wrapper crinkling. She felt the shifting of weight once more as Fez knelt before her. The hard, silken heat of his cock rested against her inner thigh; Jackie spread herself for him willingly, shamelessly. Again she dipped between her legs while the other hand reached to help sheath him in the thin latex. His breath stalled in his throat as she caressed his full length.

"Now. Please!"

With that Fez embraced her, pinning her to the bed and claiming her mouth like it was his to own. That was just fine with Jackie; at this point, her entire body was completely in his possession. Her hand deserted her clit to guide his shaft inside her; his hand immediately invited itself to fill the aching void left behind. Jackie arched underneath him as the two overwhelming sensations collided within her. Hot tremors clenched her walls around Fez's shaft, eliciting a startled gasp.

"My _God_, Jackie."

He lifted her hips to meet his; with one determined thrust his cock penetrated her to the swollen core, driving out another cry. "Are you all right?" Fez breathed, slowly drawing himself out and back in again. Jackie let out a whimper of assent.

"I need it faster."

"I know."

Another slow thrust coincided with a tantalizing rub of the clit. Jackie almost screamed. "Don't tease," she begged when he thrust again. "Please. Christ, just fuck my brains out, Fez, please!"

He shifted her hips once more and, thank God, gradually increased the speed of his movements. Jackie squirmed, trying alternately to match his pace and to bite back her frustrated cries; in this position he was, indeed, hitting that spot just right, but not hard enough. Not nearly hard enough.

Sweat beaded on her upper lip. "Mmmm, God," she moaned when he finally slammed into her. "Do that again."

He did. Jackie reared up with a squeal. "Yes! Again!"

Somewhere in the house she could hear people counting down. What time was it?...What did it matter? Her inner walls throbbed hard around him, burning her up from the inside out. His name was on her lips and her awareness, her clitoris and core, were shattering. Her legs clinched around his waist; Fez moaned her name, his rhythm quickening as he thrust deeper into her.

"_Five...four...three..."_

"Remember - " he whispered, and Jackie's eyes opened.

"_Two..."_

"Rewriting..."

"_One_..."

"History..." she finished for him, her body tensing, clenching around his shaft as he groaned into her neck. The tremors built, built...and both of them exploded in unison. Scorching white heat shook the base of her womb with pleasure and continued throbbing as he filled her at last with a hoarse, unrestrained shout. She embraced him, kissing him, letting him breathe. Fez kissed her back and held her there, listening to the silence until he'd finally softened enough to withdraw from her still-clenching sex. After awhile the heat began to ebb away.

Moments passed and their eyes adjusted to the frigid moonlight filtering through the window. They lay entwined, clutching each other and listening to the sounds of carousing coming from downstairs. A silent breath tickled Jackie's breasts as Fez hoisted himself up off of her.

"Where are you going?"

His kiss tried to be reassuring. "I'll be right back." He gestured downward; Jackie caught his drift and reluctantly let him sneak across the hall, stark naked, to dispose of the prophylactic. She heard the faucet running. When he returned at last, she dragged him back down onto the bed, wrapping her limbs around his warmth, his safety, the cohesive feel of his love. Fez breathed a laugh into her mouth as she all but mauled him, relentless with need. He clasped her hands together and held her aside while he rolled beside her, pulling her gently down on top of him. Jackie shuddered with relief.

"Don't let me go."

"I'm not."

"I mean it."

Fez tilted her head up and lightly kissed her mouth. "Yeah, well, so do I." He grinned; so did Jackie. She sighed and nestled against him, purposely forcing all her dark paranoias from the forefront of her mind. He meant it.

"Happy New Year, by the way," Fez murmured to the top of her head. Jackie draped her arm over his torso and kissed his chest. "Yeah. Happy New Year," she echoed, letting herself smile. Already her hand had sought his cock again, stroking him slowly until he stiffened from her touch.

"You don't happen to have any..._more_ of those on you, do you, baby?"

In the midst of all the shouting and the cork-popping, champagne-spilling, Red Forman-irritating celebration, something was missing. Rather, someone - _two_ someones. Donna broke away from Eric's delightfully smothering kiss and glanced at the stairs. _Shit._

"What?" he asked, following her eyes.

"They're gone," she whispered, gesturing. Eric's eyes bugged a little.

"Oh, crap."

"Yeah, crap."

"How long have they been - "

"How the hell should I know?"

"Are we the only - "

"I think so."

Eric bit down on his lip. "Okay, let's just...go over there and sit, make it look like nothing's wrong. Maybe no one will notice. God, I hope they're not in my room."

"Red?" As if on cue, Kitty Forman looked up from her champagne glass. "Have you seen Fez or Jackie?"

Her husband scowled at the empty stairs. "No. And I'm not seeing them now, either." Red stalked out from behind his bar, brandishing his empty beer can like a weapon. "Goddamn it, that foreign sonofabitch better not be screwing that loud girl in my marriage bed, or I swear on all the Koreans I slaughtered I'll send him back where he floated in from with this _can_ - "

"Straight up the keister, yes, Red, we know," Kitty soothed, hurrying in front of him as he went for the stairwell. "Now, you just calm down, we - we don't want to go jumping to conclusions."

"Uh-oh, Point Place's Sluttiest Slut strikes again!" Hyde clinked his beer can with Kelso's. Kitty silenced them both with a scalding glare.

"And besides, if she's so darned loud, then we'd already _know_ what happened, now wouldn't we?" She laughed, slapping Red's thigh, and turned to nearly collide with two dark, breathless blurs of motion. One of the blurs yelped and paused. Jackie. The other blur made straight for the front door with a kiss on Jackie's cheek and a jingle of car keys. Red shot out the door after him.

"ThanksforthepartyMrs.Formanitwaswonderfullet'sdoitagainnextyearbye!"

Trying to hide her tousled hair and unbuttoned dress, Jackie leapt for her coat and waved to the room, winking at Donna before slamming the door behind her. A vein throbbed behind Donna's left eye.

"Maybe they've got the right idea," laughed Eric. He took her hand pointedly. "C'mon. It's been awhile since we've gone for a 'drive' ourselves."

Donna's protest died on her lips once Red came barging back into the house, swearing and stomping up the stairs with Kitty close at his heels. Hyde and Kelso settled onto the couch with fresh cans of beer and toasted to the new couple's misfortune while Leo and Bob looked on with dumbfounded expressions. Donna groaned softly and shook her head.

"Okay. Fine. Just as long as you make sure to park far enough into the woods this time," she said, grinning as she yanked a disoriented Eric out through the kitchen door.

TBC


	2. Your Ways

_Disclaimer: I don't own the show, the characters, their copyrights, nada. I'm borrowing for the sake of amusing, arousing distraction and I have no money. So don't sue._

_You out there probably noticed this was a T-rated fic. Honestly? I've been inspired by all the dirrty, dirrty Steve n' Jackie stories (coughgah-lindacough) and I had to go for gold. Don't like Fez and Jackie fucking? Please don't read the fic. Grazie._

_P.S.: no sex in this entry, sorry. Next time. Honest._

**pt. deux.**

---

Hours later, Steven Hyde was turning over in his cot to blink at the ceiling. He hadn't slept, although he should have sunk like a stone, judging by all the substances he'd been bombarding himself with earlier. It hadn't been nearly enough to shut up that six-month-old burning cramp in his stomach. Just enough to loosen his tongue in their presence and let loose all the things he'd been fighting like hell not to say aloud whenever either of them were within earshot. Sometimes, he lost. Most times he didn't. This time he'd just been a sloppy drunk and lived up to all the things she'd seen in him since he'd left her for Sam. Damn Jackie.

He let out a tired breath and curled up on his side, listening to Kelso snoring from his sleeping bag on the floor. Yep, Hyde had fucked his own self over, all right, but it was _her_ damned fault he couldn't get over it! Jackie was demon spawn, but dammit, he was _drawn_ to evil! Especially if evil happened to sway its hips his way in a soft, voluptuous, occasionally endearing package. Jackie knew this, of course. She relished in using it, and once he'd let her get those claws in his arms would always lay down to let her.

Ah, who the hell was he kidding? Donna was right, he had been a douche. Even Evil Incarnate deserved a chance to find happiness, he'd told her so himself! And Fez, man - Fez had fallen hard for Jackie from the get-go, and apparently had kept the faith. All recent flare-ups aside, Hyde never saw him treat her as anything less than golden. Plus he was a kinky little bastard; Jackie's special brand of sadism was probably right up that guy's alley. Well, God bless 'em. Let Fez have fun dealing with her bullshit now. Hyde was done with it for good.

So...why the hell didn't it feel like it was for good?

Oh, Christ, what a moronic question. Hyde felt a headache building behind his eyes and wrestled a bit with his blankets. It was _over_, already. He'd been married - sort of. He'd moved on. So had Jackie, but maybe that was what kept kicking his ass. She'd given up on him and progressed while he lagged behind with a sarcastic insult at the ready and the ever-present contents of a plastic baggie backing him up. In the end, his progression hadn't even been legal - not like that had ever slowed him down, of course - but worse, it had been just a what-the-hell kind of whim. True, he'd learned to care deeply for Sam, yeah, but...but what? Damn! What the hell was his problem?

He sighed. He knew his problem. He'd opted for the quick fix while Jackie's progression had been silently building for years - so silently that no one saw it coming, not even Jackie. The idea that she'd been eyeing Fez - not Kelso, but Fez - the whole time they'd been an "abomination" made Hyde feel slightly ill, like their whole thing had been some weird lie. He grunted and turned over again. That obviously hadn't been the case; girls like Jackie didn't just cry in public behind pillars at football games over relationships that didn't exist, and he hadn't gone through that frickin' country music phase for nothing. Nope, those Merle Haggard LP's now resided in his collection for a reason. So they'd had a thing and that thing had ended. That was all - no eyeing, no lying. Time for Mr. Steven Hyde to be letting go about now. Yeah, right about now.

Kelso snorted in his sleep, startling Hyde out of his numbing philosophizing "Jesus," he said aloud to the darkness. "I'm getting spooked by Kelso's sleep apnea, for Christ's sake." He sat up in bed and planted his feet on the cold concrete. _Screw this. I need coffee. Or whiskey. Or both._

Hyde stepped over Kelso's form to wrap himself in a tattered bathrobe and stumbled his way out of the room and up the stairs. Raw, early sunlight sifted underneath the closed door, blinding him when he swung the door open. In a fog he dug the coffee maker out from under the sink and went through the motions of preparing a pot, enough for the household to dip into later. He shoved the screen door aside and stepped out into the cold, plucking a box of Marlboros out of the robe pocket and stuffing the end into his mouth. With a flick of a light soothing smoke invaded his lungs; Hyde cleared his throat and stared across the yard at Bob's house, wondering if Forman and Donna were still shacking up as he smoked.

Now, see, that was another thing. Forman had been dumb enough to split with her while off reading to kids in the African bush, and once Sam split too, it hadn't even occurred to Hyde that life might have been offering him another chance. Instead Donna had ended up farting around with that blow-dried poser Randy before predictably falling back into the arms of Forman the second they opened up to her again. Hyde sucked another drag out of the cigarette and suppressed a cough. Too late now. Twiggy's joy had been practically oozing from his pores last night as he regaled Hyde with the new plan he'd come up with on the twenty-hour flight.

"I've got it all figured out," he'd said, wringing those tiny wrists with such enthusiasm. "I talked to some people at Madison and got them to let me take the entrance exam through the mail - Hyde, I passed, man! I've been accepted!"

"That's damn cool, Forman," Hyde had told him honestly.

"Yeah! I'm going to go for a bachelor's degree, do something meaningful with my career. And the best part: the savings bond from my grandmother just matured, so now I've got enough money to put a security deposit down on a nearby apartment for me and Donna."

Hyde had nodded, curling up his lips in his version of a smile. "I'm happy for you guys, man. You finally made it." At the time he'd been looking at Jackie on the couch with Fez and kind of wishing he could've said the same. Then the beer had kicked in and things just spilled downhill from there.

Yeah, romancing Donna was just a pipedream to him now. Jackie, too. Whatever. Plenty of fish, Hyde, plenty of fish. He stubbed the Marlboro out in one of Mrs. Forman's dead potted plants and sauntered back into the house for a cup of black coffee. Hyde sat there on the kitchen stool, sipping at the brew from time to time and grimacing. The phone on the wall stared at him; Hyde stared back. The carefully memorized phone number to Jackie and Fez's place ran through his mind in a constant loop, taunting him with possibility.

Maybe he could call her, tell her he was sorry. Apologize for acting like an ass. Congratulate her and Fez. Anything to get the grudge to dissolve. Hyde fingered the handle of the mug.

He got as far as dialing the last number before deciding to replace the receiver. No. No, at this point it wouldn't do much good to say those things. As much as it made the acid boil in his stomach, she belonged with Fez now. Maybe she always had. And yet as evil as she was, as shrill and irrational and shallow as Jackie Burkhardt was, being with her had never been a waste of his time.

Wait, that was it. That was _it. _That was what he had to tell her. He snagged the phone up and dialed again, waited through a few rings before noticing the time and losing his nerve. The receiver slammed back onto the wall. Hyde ran a hand raggedly through his curls. _Fuck._ He bent to rummage in Mrs. Forman's booze stash, at last coming up with a bottle of Jack. A liberal amount splashed down into the steaming mug; Hyde gulped the mixture with relief. He left the empty mug in the sink unwashed and retreated to the basement room, where the volume of Kelso's snoring had thankfully dwindled a bit. Hyde sat on the edge of his mattress and began mulling his options over.

"Kelso." He said aloud after awhile.

"Uhhhghh."

"Kelso, man, wake the fuck up. I've got a proposition for you."

"A whose-a-whatta?" Kelso flopped over in the bag and squinted at his friend. "Way too early for using big words, man."

Hyde ignored this. "When you planning on going back to Chicago?"

"Later."

"How much later?"

The rumpled figure struggled to sit up on the floor. "Sometime this morning, I guess."

Hyde thought for a moment. "Red set me up with a sizeable chunk of cash the other day," he began. "I was thinking about getting the hell out of Point Place. You want some company?"

Kelso was silent. "Is this because Fez is nailing Jackie now and not you?"

A hot knife of pain drove itself through Hyde's skull. He grimaced. _Tact, thy name sure as hell ain't Kelso. _"Kind of." Pause. "I thought you and me could share an apartment or something. Maybe even a house."

"But I've got a place already."

"I've got enough money to get us a better one."

"What about Grooves?"

Hyde considered this. "I'll leave it with Randy. Leo, too. They'll be all right. Especially with Angie and my dad dropping in to check on them. Look, man, I don't know about you, but I need a fresh start like a son of a bitch. I'll help out with Betsy and stuff. It'd be cool, y'know?"

Silence. Hyde sighed, already craving another smoke. "Come on, Kelso. I know I don't have to tell you how it feels."

More silence. "Not really, no. Yeah, all right, if you wanna come, that's cool with me."

"Thanks." Hyde stood up and began the process of tossing his life into trash bags. As he worked, a letter began composing itself in his mind. Maybe during the drive the rest of the words would form. Maybe during the drive his courage would follow suit and convince him to mail it to Jackie. Maybe grade-A stash would someday come flying out of his ass. Anything was possible.

"Yeah, and you know, I bet Laurie'll be _real_ glad to see her little orphan boy again," Kelso was drawling on his way back from the bathroom. The hot-pain knife twisted itself a little further into Hyde's skull. _Don't ask, goddammit, don't say a word, crap I don't wanna know..._

"Dude." He finally said, rubbing his forehead. "What the hell is _she_ doing with _you_?"

"She looked my address up and came to stay with me and the baby."

Hyde turned to blink at him stupidly. "What? Why? Where's she been all this time?"

"And why do_ you_ care?"

"Uh, I don't, genius. I'm just curious as to why the original Evil Incarnate suddenly chose to rise from the undead to be your roomie."

Kelso waved him away. "Ah, she just needed a place to crash."

"She didn't even bother giving you a reason why?" Hyde's eyebrow arched. "What did Brooke have to say about all that?"

Kelso shrugged and began changing his clothes. "Brooke and I kinda hit the skids. But that was way before Laurie showed up, and besides, man, I'm not doing her or nothin'. She's just a sweet piece of eye candy I like to keep around the house. If you know what I mean."

"Yeah. Meaning you _are_ screwing around with her again and you just don't feel like saying so." Hyde rolled his eyes and returned to bag-stuffing. Great. Now he'd gotten himself stuck with a moron and his toddler along with the same skank that moron had nailed behind Jackie's back. Well, that'd make for some interesting dinner conversations, that was for sure. The headache that had been building now was trying to crack open his skull as the two men worked on loading up Kelso's little red piece of tin. Hyde tried convincing the pain that it wasn't his problem, that Kelso was the moron who'd brought Laurie on himself - again - but the pain wasn't particularly inclined to believe him.

So while old Taternuts warmed up the grumbling engine, Hyde busied himself with securing last-minute little details. He placed a call to Randy, only giving him minimal information and signing off with a promise to send him all the legal business crap upon arrival. He placed a call to Leo, asking him to keep an eye on Randy and a call to Angie asking to keep an eye on both of them. A snippet of impulse almost had him dialing Jackie's number again; thankfully the whiskey starting to course through his blood snuffed it right out. Lastly, Hyde took a moment to scrawl a note of sincere thanks to Mrs. Forman and Red and tried not to think about what he was about to do. Rather, why he was about to do it.

"Can't be helped," he said to himself, borrowing one last beer from Red's fridge. "I'm just naturally drawn to evil." An image of a sneering, preening, jiggling Laurie bounced its way through his mind's eye, mocking him and his stupid misery. "Especially soft, voluptuous evil."

With a sigh he slung on his jacket and shut both sliding doors behind him. Kelso grinned and bounced in his seat, an eager-to-please terrier anticipating his master's mood. Hyde launched himself into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut; the idling engine sparked to life as the car rolled backwards down the driveway.

"Yep. Nothin' like an old fashioned kinda road trip!" Kelso said proudly once they were rolling along the main highway. Hyde replied with another sigh and reached to click on the radio.

"..._young and sweet, only seventeen..._"

ABBA. Of course, what disgusting poetic justice. A harsh flick of his wrist morphed the syrupy melody into the first jangling chords of "Hotel California" - also poetic justice, Hyde thought sourly as he lit another smoke and offered one to Kelso, who shook his head. They drove onward. Hyde watched in the mirror as Point Place disappeared behind them.

"_You can check out anytime you like...but you can never leave..."_

Hyde snorted. "Fuck that," he said, sucking on the cigarette and exhaling angrily. He yanked his sunglasses from the pocket of his coat and glanced at Kelso over the lenses. "Taternuts. Do me a favor and step on it, huh? I really, _really _don't want Don Henley being right on this one."

Kelso's laughter scoffed at him. "Dude, I can't believe you just called me that. I can't believe you still _remember_ that! You are totally hung up on the past, man."

"Just shut up and drive."

TBC


	3. This Place Hotel

**_Disclaimer: Nothing is mine, for profit or otherwise. No flaming please - there's an insane number of J/H stories to keep those who ship hardcore amused for days. Please read them instead if Jackie and Fez aren't your bag. But if they are your bag, don't hesitate to review because egads, sometimes it gets lonely in this ship. _**

_**All chapter titles are songs from Janis Joplin's catalogue.**_

****

**Pt. Trois: Try (Just A Little Bit Harder)**

Fez stayed awake long after the ringing phone sliced through the haze of his dreams, cradling a soundly-sleeping Jackie close to him while he studied the little ridges of paint on the ceiling. He hadn't bothered getting up to answer it, figuring if it was important enough to disturb Jackie's rest the person would call twice, and they hadn't. Instead he'd closed his eyes, content to let memories play around in his mind in a scattered, dreamy way. Jackie's breathing lulled him into a half-conscious state of awareness and he drifted away...

"_You can't quit on me! I quit on you, you bossy little midget!"_

_The words had barely left his mouth before his body was tensed, primed to defend itself from the attack he saw building behind her clear green eyes. Jackie fixed him with a fiery, terrifying glare and moved back a step; Fez was ready and snatched her wrist only a beat before her palm struck his face. Both stood frozen, staring each other down in a silent battle of wills. _

_All day. All _day_ he'd spent with her, listening to her prattle on about how they would decorate, what they should use, what color streamers would compliment the Pinciotti's living room, whether or not to use a theme (Fez was honestly not letting her dress the place up like Lawrence of Arabia no matter how many adorable pouty looks she gave him). And in between that, he'd endured another round of how Michael hadn't changed, that she still didn't trust him, how she ought to show him and dump him for a new man. Fez really wasn't amused; he'd seen the way she'd looked at Hyde and how she'd let both Hyde and Kelso treat her like a disposable toy, and frankly he was running low on sympathy. He'd tried, gods, how he'd tried making a true connection with her. Still she turned him down; still he'd tolerated it. After winning the Doo-dah, after being rejected the very next day, after fighting Kelso for her affections in that crappy ice shack and losing, then watching her come crawling back when Kelso predictably let her down again. And now this. Now she was giving up on him yet again and he'd had just about enough, thanks. Fez counted his breaths._

"_Don't even," he seethed. Jackie's nostrils flared. She tried to twist out of his grip but he held tight, refusing to relinquish control. Leo was still busy with the drive-thru customer and had no idea what was taking place behind him. Jackie cast a glance backwards and whirled back around, jerking her arm away in another futile attempt at freedom. Fez pulled her just close enough to whisper in her ear. _

"_I mean it. Don't try to get away, not this time." Her hair gave off an intoxicating coconut scent. He could hear her breathing hard, almost panting. Had she stepped closer to him? Was this...good God, could this be turning her _on_? Just the idea set him on fire. He placed a hand in the small of her back and whispered, "I've got you where I want you."_

"_Fez, let me go," she ordered quietly. Fez peered at her, amused._

"_Why are you keeping your voice down?"_

_Jackie stared past his shoulder to where Hyde had stormed out moments earlier. "No reason! Fine, fine, screw it, let's just go."_

"_Fine."_

_He allowed himself to be hastily dragged out of the Fotohut and across the deserted parking lot. The familiar black El Camino was nowhere in sight. Jackie fumbled for her car keys, thrust them in the lock and twisted it, then swung the driver's side door open and shoved Fez inside. He'd barely gotten his bearings before Jackie climbed in after him and slammed the door shut. Then locked it. Then fixed her blazing eyes squarely on him. _

"_Fine," she said again, whispering now. "You win, okay? You win."_

"_What?"_

"_You've got me where you want me." So saying, Jackie advanced towards him on her hands and knees, sliding across the seat until his thigh was between her legs and her body was insistently pressed against him; Fez gaped at her, struck dumb by the sudden shift of power. "So be a man and _do_ something about it already."_

_Then before he had a chance to respond, he was tasting her lips on his, her mouth demanding the attention of his tongue while her hands tangled in his hair. "Jackie," he gasped out between hungry kisses, "oh, God, what are you doing?"_

"_Doing something about it already," she rasped in reply, undulating against him while peeling away her jacket and then her blouse. While he lay pinned beneath her, Jackie leaned to turn on the radio and ay, of all the songs in all the world, "Layla" began filtering through the car speakers. Fez's mind was screaming at him in utter desperation, screaming this couldn't be real, she was not on top of him and damn near topless and oh gods I'm dreaming of course I'm dreaming..._

"_Jackie?" He summoned all the strength he had to keep from stammering. "What on Earth is going on - why are you doing this?"_

_She giggled, biting her lip with a coquettish perversion while at the same time reaching behind her to unhook her lace bra. "Okay, remember when we won the roller disco contest? And we were sitting together in this car for like, hours?" Fez swallowed hard, nodding. _

"_Yes...but as I recall you'd been so drunk you couldn't remember a thing. You told me yourself."_

_Jackie smiled down at him, sliding the loose bra down her arms and revealing breasts so perfect Fez forget how to breathe. "I lied," she said simply, tossing the garment away. "I couldn't deal with all my secret fantasies of you coming true right then and there. So I got drunk. And I lied. I made a mistake and I've been wanting to make things right for a loooooong, long time."_

"_Uh-huh." He struggled to keep calm. Jackie slid down to his level for a kiss that started off soft and built slowly into something hard, wet, utterly mind-bending. Both gazed at each other when the kiss broke, trying to gauge each other's true intentions. "Look," she whispered against his lips, "I don't care anymore. You always make me feel so beautiful; Michael has never appreciated me the way that you do." She smiled then, grinding herself against him very, very slowly. This was the part of the dream where Fez always woke up, which he was counting on, because if he didn't wake up her body, her voice, her touch would surely drive him insane. _

"_They say men who can dance like you make the best lovers." Jackie's husky voice seared through him, shocking him back to what was apparently reality. "And God, I wanna find out if they're right...please? Please, Fez?"_

_And at that he'd snapped. In a blur of frantic movements, Fez had mindlessly pulled her to him, Jackie had stripped off his shirt and slacks, and they both had escalated to a point they couldn't turn back from. Part of him was well aware he hadn't done this much before but the rest of him couldn't have cared less, reasoning that enthusiasm could more than make up for lack of skills. His hands slid underneath her skirt, caressing, toying with the edges of her panties before she wriggled her way out of them and let him stroke her, there, where it counted. Rocking her hips in time to his fingers, Jackie began to moan a little, then a little more, until Fez nudged her up to his lips so he could push her over the edge. "Layla" faded into "Because The Night", into "Magic Man" and "Superstition" and by "Dream On" he had to stop her, just to make absolutely sure it was all real. _

"_Jackie...you know what will happen if we do this," Fez murmured to the exquisite goddess on top of him. Jackie had moaned and bunched her skirt around her waist eagerly. "Details, baby, details," she panted, smiling down at him as her hips descended upon his, and he was engulfed in her throbbing liquid heat, over and over again. His palm slid between their bodies to coax her along; her explosion came just seconds after his. He lay watching as she writhed in orgasm, crying out her pleasure in time to Steven Tyler's climactic howl in the song. Then she collapsed beside him on the skinny car seat, panting, laughing, kissing him. Twice more that evening they "danced" together while the sun set and the foggy car windows dripped condensation_._ Fez thought to himself in the dreamy silence that followed that he wouldn't have had anyone else be his first, anyone at all. And for a few quiet moments, everything in the world was perfect._

_Then he'd felt her naked body tense beside him and knew this had been a bad idea. The silence disintegrated at the sound of Jackie's resigned sigh, and they began to talk. Whether she liked it or not, she was still with Michael, she'd said, and both decided once the euphoria fully wore off that it couldn't happen again. _

"_I mean, he freaked out when he knew I'd kissed some guy he didn't even know, let alone...this."_

_Fez had agreed with her, hating himself. She was right. She'd started it, but she was right; this had to be their little secret. They couldn't go on doing this behind Kelso's back, that much was clear. Everything else seemed so blurry and confused but they'd let it stay that way and let the matter drop. Jackie sat up and began to dress herself while Fez did the same as he tried to make sense out of the last few hours._

"_Fez?"_

"_Mmm?"_

_She was beaming at him. "I loved this. I - I'm sorry, but I couldn't keep all my feelings in anymore, I had to know what it was like, to be with you like this, and it was mean of me but I'm _always_ mean so you're probably used to me and...and I don't regret a thing. You don't have any regrets, do you?"_

"_What? No!" He lied, giving her his best exaggerated you're-being-crazy look. "No, of course I don't, Jackie. Are you kidding? You just made all my fantasies come true."_

_Even in the twilight he could tell she was deeply blushing. "But it was your first time, right?"_

"_Well, yes."_

"_You're sure you don't regret it?"_

_He bent forward to peck her on the lips. "I'm sure."_

_Jackie smiled with uncharacteristic shyness. "Good." She reached up to stroke the side of his face. "Because I have to say, I loved being your first. And Fez? You _were_ good."_

"_Really?"_

"_Mmm-hmm. They were right," she laughed, and he had to laugh with her. Curious, how this sweeter side of her never seemed to come out in front of their friends, only in these little moments alone. No more of those for awhile, he'd thought, if ever again._

"_Well, that's what friends are for," he'd replied with a grin and a kiss on the end of her nose. _

Fez's eyes opened. He turned over in bed to contemplate the soft curves of his girlfriend. It all made him want to shake his head. So much wasted. Fez spooned his body against hers, feeling relieved and really quite elated that the worst seemed to be behind them at last.

Thankfully no one had questioned them when they'd shown up late to Hyde's birthday party, and Fez hadn't thought much of it when Jackie kissed his friend on the cheek. The two of them had sequestered themselves at a little table in the corner of the living room, making small talk that sounded absurd to his ears; every so often he'd catch her shooting lusty little glances at Hyde's turned back. In the days and weeks following that night neither of them spoke about the two hours spent in the front seat of the Lincoln. It became so surreal, reliving the events in his head and yet feeling so distant from the one person he'd felt closest to. He began to crave closure. One day during the last week of summer he'd stumbled upon it accidentally, finding her alone with Hyde, looking sweaty and very, very guilty. When he'd posed the question as to who'd been eating his candy, only Jackie seemed to know the question wasn't exactly rhetorical. She'd averted her eyes instantly, and Fez had understood. He'd despised the fact, but he'd understood. He'd left her to her own devices and moved on, to Nina, to Laurie and to others, yet never quite managed to banish all traces of Jackie from his heart and mind.

Her little acquaintance's wedding had been the breaking point in all sorts of ways. A solid year and a half of silence had gone by between the two of them, capped off with that ludicrous attempt at pretending to be Jackie's fiancee because - surprise! - Hyde wouldn't do it for real. That night while driving her back to the Pinciotti's Fez decided he'd had enough of being her plan B, and he'd said so, much to Jackie's horror.

"_I - I don't know what you mean."_

"_Like fudge you don't." Fez glared at her. "Forgive me, Jackie, but if you're so upset with Hyde, if you're tired of the way he's treating you, well, I don't know what to tell you except that you and I, we've had plenty of chances. I've never forgotten what happened that night in your car, and it could have grown into something more. Something beautiful. But you did. You pushed me away, you ran to Hyde, and now we're both paying for it."_

_Jackie was quiet. "Fez, listen, I didn't mean to - "_

"_No, I mean it, Jackie, what exactly did you expect would happen? Did you just do it with me so you could brag to all your cheerleader friends that you did the foreign kid and guess what, he wasn't nearly as bad as everyone says?"_

"_What? No!"_

"_Please, little girl, I know where I stand. You were too scared to actually be with me, so you settled for a little forbidden fling before you moved on to the next forbidden fling, didn't you? That's all I was to you."_

"_Oh, Fez, no." She exhaled softly. "No. I didn't expect to end up with Steven. I'm still not sure how I ended _up_ with Steven, to tell the truth; I hadn't even known I was going to end it with Michael. Look...it never would have worked. Our parents would have flipped out and so would our friends. But at the time..." Jackie sighed. "At the time, yeah, I wanted you. I couldn't help it; you were so sweet to me when everyone else just kind of dismissed me as some stupid little rich girl."_

"_How could they not? You played the part like a pro."_

"_Yeah, I know. And I'm proud of that! But Fez, please, please believe me when I tell you I never meant for that to happen. I didn't plan it that way or anything, it just happened. You challenged me and I was up to it, I guess."_

_Fez gripped the steering wheel a little tighter. "I don't understand you, Jackie. Kelso left you, and the two of us were alone just as much as you and Hyde were. Why him? Why choose someone you had no history with, who wasn't and still isn't capable of giving you what I can?"_

"_I...I don't know," she replied in a very small voice. "I honestly don't." Jackie's eyes shone up at him. "Fez, I'm so sorry. I never meant to hurt you."_

"_I know you didn't. But it doesn't change anything, now, does it?"_

"_No." She lay a tentative hand on his thigh. "We're still friends, though, aren't we? Can't we still have a good time together?"_

_Fez stared ahead at the slashed white lines disappearing under the car. He shrugged. "Look, you've always known where I stand when it comes to you. I'll always care for you. But I'm not going to act as your backup plan any longer, Jacqueline, I refuse." He glanced at her again. "And I'll tell you something else: you could have counted on me to give you a future. I would have happily made you my wife, provided for you. What's in your future now?"_

Well, that must have gotten to her, because the next thing he knew, Jackie had broken up with Hyde for a second time. Fez never knew the details of what went on after he'd dropped her off, and he certainly hadn't asked. He just knew it had been his fault. Secretly, he'd noticed Jackie giving him the same covert looks she'd given Hyde once upon a time, and it unnerved him so badly he'd done the only thing he could. He nagged the two of them until they'd reunited, thinking (and fervently hoping) that was the end of that. It was, for a while, until Hyde split for Las Vegas, Kelso left for Chicago, and Jacqueline Burkhart became his newly single roommate by pure accident. Faced with temptation every day, left and right, in his own home, Fez forced himself to keep to his word no matter how it hurt. He'd avoided Jackie in any way possible, even if that meant going after and landing every attractive woman he laid eyes on to put her off. Even if it meant enduring those looks from Jackie every morning he sent one of them home. Even if it meant rejecting her once she finally came around and confessed her feelings for him, when all he wanted was to embrace her then and there and never let go.

But all the while he'd loved her, of _course_ he'd still loved her. It hardly mattered to him if she were with another man, even one of his friends. Fez just wanted to see Jackie be happy, truly happy. To think she'd finally, genuinely found that with _him_...it really left him lost for words in any language.

Beside him on the nightstand, the alarm clock radio loudly came to life. Fez slapped it into silence and turned back to Jackie, who stretched against him, moaned, but didn't quite awaken. He bent to plant a light kiss between her shoulder blades and gingerly slipped out of bed, adjusting himself a bit on his way to the bathroom. Once he'd found a bottle of bubble bath, added some to the filling tub, and returned to bed Jackie had roused herself and turned the radio back on. He smiled, noticing "More Than A Woman" was playing and finding it apt.

"Baby," the comforter-swaddled figure murmured to him. Fez knelt at her bedside in an instant. Blue-green eyes peered at him through waves of luscious dark hair. "Do you have to go in to work today?"

"Negative, my pet. It's an official holiday." He kissed her lips lightly. "Why? Had something else in mind, did you?"

"Maybe." She reached to kiss him back; he embraced her. "Come back to bed and find out."

"But I'm running you a bath."

Jackie nudged over and lifted the coverlet, revealing her nudity. "Just get in bed."

"Well, when you put it _that_ way..."

She rolled her eyes playfully and dragged him into bed by the waistband of his briefs. Fez fought back with a long, deep kiss, rolling her so that he'd pinned her to the mattress. Her palm was sliding down the curves of his abs, fighting its way underneath the elastic so that her fingers could curl around his shaft. Fez laughed into Jackie's mouth.

"Aren't you just an insatiable little nymph."

Her giggle was a low, lusty purr. "Definitely..."

Their joining this time was a slow one, exquisitely dreamlike, and when it was over they lay spooned together, savoring the quiet aftermath.

"God, Fez," Jackie finally moaned, snuggling back against him in a way he found maddeningly erotic. "What did you _put_ in that champagne last night, Spanish Fly?"

"I'm an innocent man, my love." He nibbled at her ear, moving lower to kiss her neck. She snorted. "Yeah. I bet you are, you foreign sex addict."

"Takes one to know one." Fez nodded at her nightstand, where a decimated box of Trojans lay carelessly ripped open. "You're the one who made me drive to the all-night drug store in Kenosha for those in the dead of night."

"Oh, you - " Jackie reached back to slap him on the ass. "You're the one who wanted to take me in the front seat of your car there in the parking lot!"

"You're the one who was feeling nostalgic."

That earned him a second, harder slap on the rump. "Yeah, well, _you're_ the one who wouldn't give up on me in the first place," she told him with a sugary smile. Fez leaned down for a little taste of that sugar, possessively running his hand along the length of that body he'd spent all night exploring. Jackie arched and moaned underneath him; his loins began to stir again in answer. "You're the one who needed to be displayed like a flower," he whispered, letting his palm drift up to cup her breast. "I'm guessing I did rather well with that, am I right?"

She grinned up at him. "Mmm, Fezzy, you display my flower like no one else." Jackie paused. "That sounds really friggin' corny, doesn't it?"

"Not really, but I'm the king of stupid sayings, so you know, I'm kind of biased."

Jackie laughed and settled back into the pillows. "Then it works out perfectly." She gave a happy little sigh. "I'm so happy we finally made it."

"You and me both."

They kissed again. Jackie turned over fully to meet his eyes. "One thing's still confusing to me, though."

"Oh?"

"Yeah. I wonder why all this time you've...oh, you know...I don't know, had bad luck with women, I guess. But whenever we're together..." She gave a little fluttery sigh and closed her eyes. "You make me feel incredible. You know what I mean? Oh god, I'm sorry, I'm being insulting, aren't I?"

"No, no, truth is truth, my pet. You're right." Fez pondered this, mentally flipping through his collage of memories for an answer. "I don't know why." He thought of the first time he'd fallen for her, the night they tore up the floor at the Kenosha disco, and an idea came to him. "Maybe...maybe it's because I just never found a 'dancing' partner who could, how you say, vibe with me on the level that you could."

Jackie absently stroked the side of his jaw. "The chemistry didn't work."

"Not like yours does," Fez purred with a lascivious smile. "Which reminds me, we really need to go dancing together again. Tonight."

"We really should. I'll call Donna later, see if she'll drag Eric along too." Jackie shook her head at him, beaming. "You know, I think I'm in love with you, Fez," she confessed. "I really am. And it doesn't scare me at all anymore."

"Likewise, my cherished goddess," he replied, kissing her. "Very much likewise." Jackie looked alarmingly close to tears. "Really? I'm your goddess?"

Fez shrugged. "Somehow 'girlfriend' doesn't quite cut it when it comes to you."

Her tears spilled over. "Oh, Fezzy..." She pulled him down for a hard surge of a kiss, wrapping one leg around his waist; in a simultaneous twist of fate, "Because The Night" came on the radio, making both of them laugh. Fez felt her hips rocking to the song's rhythm and slid lower, teasing those perfect breasts with tongue and teeth, making her gasp for him.

"Feel like getting nostalgic again, baby?"

"Fe-ez...oh, wait, Fez - _oh!_ God, please..."

"Ah yes, you like that, don't you?" he crooned to her navel while shifting lower still. Jackie reared up.

"No, no, I mean wait! Fez!"

He blinked up at her through a haze of lust. "Jacqueline?"

"Fez, the tub! It's still running!"

_Water. Tub. Damage. Fenton! Crap!_ He leapt from her side, hurling himself out of the bedroom and through the open bathroom door with Jackie on his heels. Hot, sudsy water met the rim of the tub as it lapped threateningly over the sides; Fez knelt in a panic and twisted the faucet off, then felt around in the water to yank out the drainage plug. The whole time Jackie stood by the sink, trying and failing to stifle her laughter. Fez turned to her and rolled his eyes.

"That's right, go ahead, laugh it up at my wacky foreign hijinks, little girl."

"I'm sorry," she giggled, her shoulders shaking. "Oh, baby, I'm sorry, but the way you jumped up and ran like that, totally naked..." Jackie's apology trailed off in a belly laugh. "I couldn't help myself - look at you!"

"Uh, Jackie?" Fez pointedly looked her up and down. "Like I said, it takes two."

Jackie's mouth formed a little "o" shape at the realization, which only made her laugh harder. "Ohmigod! Look at us! We are _such_ screw-ups!" Demurely she perched herself on the edge of the slowly emptying tub. "What are we gonna do with ourselves?"

"We'll just screw up together, I guess." Fez watched the water recede a bit more and decided the level was decent. He hoisted himself off the tiled floor and gingerly stepped into the tub. "It's perfect," he said to her, extending a hand. Jackie accepted, smiling, as she sank down beside him in the water's intoxicating heat. Fez shifted his weight and waded towards her on hands and knees, smothering her heady laughter with a slow, wet kiss.

"Where were we?"

"In heaven," she responded, wrapping her arms around his neck. Fez gazed down at her. "I still can't believe it," he murmured, lost in another memory.

_Fez had slithered his way out of his bedroom and paused to listen. There it was again, that strange frightened moaning coming from the other end of the apartment. He turned back to Hilary, who had passed out in the fetal position minutes after yet another lackluster session of so-called lovemaking, and crept his way towards the source of the sounds._

"_Jackie?"_

_He didn't dare speak above a whisper; Hilary was a notoriously light sleeper and if she found him out of bed and in his roommate's bedroom - well, Fez was fairly certain she'd be kinder than Nina or Caroline when it came to corporal punishment, but even so, hell had no fury. He cast another paranoid glance behind him at the dimly lit living room and turned back to a moaning Jackie. His weight sank as slowly as possible onto the edge of her bed. _

"_Jackie." Fez laid a hand on her arm and gave it a gentle shake. "Jackie, you okay?"_

_She rolled over with a start, her eyes glazed and wild. Fez froze for a moment, paralyzed by the memory of imagining her in Hilary's position only minutes ago. Come on, old boy, he'd said to himself. Come on now. This isn't what you want, to hide from her like this with other women. All the signs she's given you, the "Wizard Of Oz" dates, the late night talks on drives home from the salon, the shopping trips with your fruitcake landlord just to save your home. You need her. You've always needed her. What are you waiting for? Just say so! Out with it!_

_He reached for her hand and held it in his dampening palms. The words tumbled out faster than his mouth could form them, it seemed. _

"_You-you were moaning in your sleep and while I found it enjoyable, I...thought I should wake you up." _

_Ay, lies, all of it lies. What was he _doing_? How was he letting the most important thing in his pathetic excuse of a life get away from him? And how did he possibly expect to fix all of it here in the dark by Jackie's bedside? _

_Jackie, for her part, merely stared at him. "I'm fine," she insisted, and gods, he wanted to lose his mind when she made that aloof pouty face, the Deal Maker, the look that always landed Jackie what she wanted sooner or later. "No, no, I'm fine, it's just, um - "_

"_Fe-ez!"_

_Both of them froze at Hilary's sweet, sleep-deprived little trill. Fez glanced back at Jackie, who still wore that expectant stare, as if to say, "Well? What's it gonna be, Fezzy, her bed or mine? 'Cause we both know which one you really belong in."_

"_...get back in here, you beast!"_

_Fez wanted to sigh, but settled for a less-than-witty reply to his bedmate and very reluctantly let go of Jackie's hand. He wanted to offer some kind of apology for doing this, for taking the coward's way out. At the very least, just tell her he'd come in later to make sure she was okay. But he didn't. No, Fez just shot his goddess the goofiest grin he could muster and fled the room before he gave in to the urge to just confess everything and send Hilary home so he could make love to the woman he was supposed to. He didn't look back, fearing Jackie's reaction almost more so than Hilary's. _

"_I'm so sorry, Jacqueline," he whispered, pausing just outside her bedroom doorway. "I'm sorry for this, but it won't last long. I can't take this anymore. I just...I wish I could find a way to trust you again, the way I used to."_

_Despondent, Fez crept back into his bedroom. Hilary was waiting, propped up on one elbow expectantly. Fez shed his bathrobe and shut the door behind him._

"Fez?" Jackie was still gazing back at him. "What's wrong? You're like, on another planet or something."

He brushed a damp lock of hair out of her eyes. "Forgive me, love. I was just thinking about...oh, you know. How opportunity just does not knock twice, and then knock again, and then leave a note saying 'sorry, I missed you', and yet, here we are. After everything."

She bit her lip, nodding. "After all the stuff we ignored."

"After all the stupid mistakes made. I should have told you when we danced in Kenosha, right then and there. I should have done so many things."

"Coulda, woulda, shoulda," Jackie quipped. "Don't you get it yet, Fez? I don't really care how long it took us to get here, or what mistakes we made along the way, okay? This is now, and this..." She paused to give him a hard, lingering kiss on the mouth. "This is real."

Fez kissed her back, harder. "You, my dear, make me feel like the luckiest son of a bitch in the world."

Jackie smirked at him. "Uh, yeah. Because you _are._"

A grin spread across his face at her quiet laugh, and the grey sparkle in those trusting eyes. _And you can trust me, Jackie,_ he thought as their kiss deepened into something decidedly more robust. _It's not like years ago...I can keep you safe now. And I will, I swear it._

Jackie spoke his name, the name he'd revealed only once and only Jackie pronounced it correctly, and let him lift her onto the edge of the tub. Fez let himself drown in her, imprinting every curve of her, every nuance of her taste, her being permanently into his memory. So much time to make up for. So very many ways he needed to show her she was everything, and now, all the time in the world to do just that.

_Life is wonderful,_ he marveled, and brought a flushed, delirious Jackie back down into the water.

TBC


	4. Blame It On The Boogie

**_Disclaimer: Nothing's mine, all belongs to Fox / Casey-Werner, respectively, and NO PROFIT is gained by me. Only a middling sense of retained sanity. Which ain't illegal. Yet._**

_**A/N: More o' the same, gals and pals: no flaming please, if Fez bagging Jackie ain't your thing, kindly read the oceans of Zenfic just waiting for your perusals. And if it is, don't hesitate to tell me so, cause me loves it. No sex this time, but the finale I've got cookin' shouldn't disappoint. **_

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Pt. Quatre: "Piece of My Heart"

"I cannot _believe_ it took six whole hours for you to get us here." Hyde let his skull drop back against the headrest once the grinding engine drone finally cut off. His ears rang from the silence. "All you had to do was stay on frickin' I-91, but no. Your ass had to go try and find the Jelly Belly plant."

"Hey, I_ told _you, I'm not going to rest until I find a combination that tastes and feels like weed. That was a golden opportunity!"

"At this point, Kelso, you _are_ weed, plain and simple."

Hyde shoved the passenger door open and all but fell out of the car. It felt as if someone'd filled his bone marrow with lead. He smeared a hand over his bleary, probably bloodshot eyes and retrieved his backpack from behind the seat. The sun was beginning to set already, damned winter. Maybe the sooner it got dark, the sooner he could get some damn sleep. Hyde silently prayed Betsy was past the shrieking-night-feedings phase of life as he shuffled up the front steps of what passed for Kelso's house. Everything _seemed_ quiet enough. He breathed deeply and reached for the crooked handle dangling off of the screen door.

"_Kelso!_"

The door slammed open suddenly and nearly knocked Hyde off the stoop. "Jesus!" He hissed as a baby-saddled Laurie bounded her way out of the house towards luggage riddled, lumbering Kelso, who looked up at her and gave a tired groan.

"Damn, Laurie, can't a man get inside his own house after a long road trip without you immediately jumping on his ass?"

"No," she retorted, shifting Betsy's weight from one hip to the other. "Look, you lame-ass wannabe road warrior, you're the one who insisted on spending New Year's in Point Place. And see? See what happened while you were gone?" Laurie gently pawned the baby off to a struggling Kelso and cracked a grin. "Look how she's missed her daddy!"

Hyde noticed father and daughter had the same goofy, lopsided smile, which somehow made him even more tired than he already was. Kelso cooed a rather nauseating chant of "who-missed-her-daddy"'s down at his offspring; Hyde opted to use his time a bit more wisely and find somewhere to lie down.

Next thing he knew, he was being shaken out of a deep black sleep with a cranky insistence that could only be Laurie's. Hyde kept his eyes closed and played dead.

"Orphan. Hey. Orphan Boy!" Shake, shake, slap, shake. "Wake up, you're _on_ my side of the couch." Hard smack on the thigh; Hyde tried and succeeded in not wincing. A curious silence followed this. He listened, trying to sense her evil presence, and after a few moments relaxed into the cushions again.

The only warning given before being punched in the jewels by two tiny fists was a distant giggling whisper and a charge of little Kelso feet. _"Wa' up, Orphan Boy!"_ Came Betsy's broken-English war cry; Hyde doubled over with a suppressed shriek while the original Evil Incarnate guffawed at him from the corner of the room. Pain spiraled up into his stomach as he fell off the couch, narrowly avoiding the baby, who got down on all fours to peer into his face.

"Very...funny." Hyde opened his eyes and peered back at Betsy. Still laughing, Laurie bent down and lifted the child out of his view. "Good girl, Betsy, very good girl!"

Oh, bastard, that's all the world needs now, he thought. An apprentice of Laurie Forman's. Peachy.

The semi-lucid parts of him heard Laurie coo something about bedtime and barely feminine footsteps thudding upstairs. When the pain ebbed away into something bearable, Hyde slowly sat up and looked around for signs of Kelso. Nothing. His only company was a tired-looking upholstered futon and the drone of "Three's Company" on an equally tired-looking television. Reminded him of Forman's basement, actually, which gave Hyde the strangest homesick feeling.

"Homesick," he muttered, gingerly hoisting himself back onto the futon. "I don't gethomesick. I don't get attached, period. Fucking Christ, any more of this and I'm gonna need a head doctor."

He sat rotting there on the couch, waiting for the rock in his stomach to go away, blankly watching John Ritter and Suzanne Somers engage in madcap antics. He didn't bother saying anything to Evil Incarnate once she'd plunked down on the other end of the couch.

"So Kelso has the dawn shift tomorrow. Pansy went to bed early," she said in that trademark bored drawl of hers. Hyde glanced at her warily. "That so? And he left _you_ in charge of his kid for the night?"

Laurie snorted at him. "I'm in charge of the kid all the _time_, orphan, in case you hadn't noticed. What'd you think, Kelso left her all by her lonesome?"

"Nope. Criminal neglect is really more your style, not his."

"You want another punch in the balls? Cause I can easily arrange that."

"Oh, right, I forgot. You could never go for more than five minutes without touching someone's balls. It's been so long, you know, things like that slip my mind."

"Asshole." Laurie opted to punch him hard in the bicep instead; Hyde recoiled from the impact. "Damn, Laurie! You know, you haven't changed at all. You're still the earth-mother-whore I know and hate, except now your evil streak's turned all violent. Jesus."

Laurie's painted-red lips formed a vicious little smirk. "Is that supposed to be, like, an insult, Hyde? You hate friggin' everything and everyone."

"And with good damned reason," he said, rubbing away the deep fist-shaped ache in his arm. Laurie rolled her big dumb eyes at him and flounced up off of the couch. "Shut up. Want a beer or something?"

"Whatever." He let the bounce in her hips distract him from the glare of the TV screen, and kept staring even after the kitchen's darkness swallowed her up. _Yep. That's some fine looking evil, all right. _Hyde wondered how many Budweisers it would take for him to stop caring and distract himself with a good, hard, unconscionable lay; beer alone probably wasn't enough to take this edge off. He dug some rolling papers and a baggie from his back pocket, hoping they'd act as an acceptable substitute, and made his way to a little table in the corner to set to work.

"Thaaaaaank-_you_," Laurie sang, plucking the fresh blunt from Hyde's fingers and dropping a wet, freezing can of beer in its place. Typical. Hyde didn't bother glaring; he just picked up another paper and rolled something for himself. She bent over in front of him, silently demanding that her joint be lit. Hyde kept his eyes on her breasts as the flash from his Zippo temporarily illuminated them, and contemplated the curves of her backside as she bent to crack a window. Threads of frigid air filtered their way into the living room as Hyde and Laurie smoked and drank in silence.

"So Laurie. What've you been up to the past two years?" Not that he was curious or anything; just that the whole not-talking thing was boring him. That and he was too lazy at the moment to get up and find the corn chips he suddenly craved. Original Evil Incarnate shrugged.

"Here and there." She took a deep, slow drag and took her time exhaling. "Married men are only fun if you're not actually married to them. So I dumped Fez, hung around Milwaukee, made some new friends." A devious smile. "Got my marriage annulled. Got my life back. Actually ended up down in Arizona, helping Grandma out after Grandpa..." Then the smile disappeared behind a swig of beer and didn't return. Hyde studied her, taking periodic drinks from his own can while he waited for her to drown the urge to cry. "So Penny came up from Florida and the two of us stayed there for a while. Drove Grandma around, got her groceries, cooked, cleaned, all that stuff she didn't feel like doing anymore, 'til she kicked us out."

Hyde snorted, grinning ruefully. "Well, that's what happens when you tempt fate with too many orgies in Grandma's living room. Gotta pay her actual rent to get away with that."

Laurie frogged him on the arm again. "_Anyway._ Penny and I hit the road, met some guys, had some fun, and ran out of money in Vegas."

Hyde's skin prickled, as if sensing a storm. "Vegas, huh?" He took another hit from his blunt. "Oh, do tell." He wondered if the sarcasm was enough to mask his now churning uneasiness. She beamed an evil grin at him. "We got jobs as dancers in this cute little resort - made a _lot_ of money, sent some to Grandma. Y'know. Made our living making friends; me and this girl Sammy made the most."

Sammy. A slideshow of fuzzy images from his trek to Nevada played through his spinning mind's eye, pausing on those that recalled being with Sam. Laurie wasn't showing up in any of them. "How long were you in Vegas?"

"None of your goddamn business, orphan," Laurie said between slugs of beer. Hyde rubbed his face tiredly.

"Humor me, will ya? Just tell me how long."

Laurie plunked the can down and rolled her eyes. "I dunno. Maybe a year. Penny went back home - got all weepy and homesick on me, the puss - and so I had to find a new place to live, cause Sam, like, ran away with one of her customers and the boss was _so_ pissed."

A vein in his forehead twitched; Hyde buried his face in his hands while Laurie's sordid tale droned on in his ears. "And so I looked up Kelso and came here, cause I could. I didn't really feel like hearing my mother's whining if I showed up back at home, so here I am. It's weird, but it works out. I'm gonna start classes at Empire Beauty in a week or two. Kelso's always working these days, so I get to watch Betsy whenever Brooke's not around." Laurie grinned. "I gotta admit, she's a lot of fun. Great kid." She tilted her can for another swig of beer and paused, peering over the can's rim at Hyde, who was still holding his head. "What's the matter with you?"

"What, me? Nothing." Hyde stood up to retrieve a nearby ashtray, stubbing his blunt out in it as he sat back down across from her. "Nothing. Uh, I just...I just was wondering why I never saw you around. In Vegas. That's all."

Laurie's eyebrow rose at him. "You were in Vegas? When?"

"None of your goddamn business, Earth-mother-whore."

Why was she smiling? And why was it all of a sudden kind of appealing? Hyde shook himself aware and lay a fresh rolling paper on the table, sprinkling a thick line of plant fragments along the middle. Laurie re-crossed her legs and folded her arms on the table so her breasts scrunched together. "Okay, fine. Let's try _why_ you were in Vegas then, huh? Can that be my business? Cause I'd kinda like to know how you got away from your bossy little cheerleader ho for that long without her castrating you."

Hyde was too busy calming his roiling guts at the mention of Jackie to answer. Laurie's eyes lit up.

"Oh, I know why!" She slapped the table triumphantly. "I know why! She left you, didn't she?"

Hyde glared at her as he swept up the scattered leaves and rolled them in the paper. "We had a thing," he said in a dead voice, twisting up the edges of the fresh joint, "and that thing ended. That's it."

"The hell it is. Spill, orphan, gimme the goods. What'd you do, fuck someone else? I bet you fucked someone else."

Hyde avoided her eyes; God, he'd just never stop paying for that one damned night of stupidity with one damned slutty nurse, would he? Oh, who cared anymore? Why the hell was he hiding? What did he have to lose anymore, really?

"Things were cool for a while. We were happy, I guess. Yeah, I fucked up a couple of times and more than once I thought she was still doing Kelso, but we ended up working things out. Then we...were kinda going to get hitched. Kind of. Sort of."

"So you and Little Miss Cool were going to elope."

"_No_, you didn't let me finish. She...got this job offer and wanted an answer from me, yes or no, and when I didn't give her exactly what she wanted exactly when she wanted it, she left me. I followed her. And I found her with Kelso again. That was it."

"Oooh, you went to Vegas to _escape_ Jackie." Laurie smirked. "Can't really say I blame you."

Hyde paused, glanced at Laurie, and snatched up his lighter. "Yeah," he said simply, balancing the joint between his lips to fire it up. "Yeah, I did. I gave it up. Just gave it all up; couldn't take her screwing with my mind anymore. I took a trip, found myself a new lady, made her my wife instead. Whatever. So we never really bothered talking about it anymore, cause there was nothing left to talk about, and now she's Fez's problem, not mine."

He took another, slower drag. A beat passed; Laurie's eyes suddenly bulged and her beer can lurched away from her lips as she coughed out a laugh. "Wait wait wait. Wait a second. Oh, my God, _you_ were Fro-Boy! You're the customer who stole my boss's wife!"

"Fro-Boy?"

She ignored this, giggling as her red-tipped finger hovered at his face. "Wow. You're shittin' me. So you went off and ditched the cheerleader for Sammy and your little slut cheerleader -"

"Jesus Christ, she is _not_ my cheerleader already - "

"Has now finally gotten with my foreign freak of an ex-husband. Ho-ly crap. Took 'em long enough."

Hyde stopped, lay the joint in the ashtray, and frowned. _Took 'em long enough._ Why did those words have such a sickening effect? He knew it wasn't only because Laurie spoke them. He thought of Jackie eyeing Fez, Jackie laughing with Fez, Jackie screwing Fez blind in their bed, and got a nasty sinking feeling in his chest. Kind of felt like his stomach was trying to digest his heart, really. Nice.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

The words sounded stupid in his head and even stupider coming out of his mouth, judging by how hard he was cracking Laurie up. She eventually sat upright again, fanning herself and letting out a toasted, careless guffaw. "Please. Like you never saw it. It was so totally obvious the whole time!"

Hyde closed his eyes. "Laurie, man. You were never there to _see_ me and Jackie together."

"Like it matters. Think about it, Hyde." Laurie leaned over and took a hit from the blunt he'd left smoldering in the little clay plate. "Think back to before she was calling you her 'boyfriend'. Wasn't Fez always offering to do things for her when you wouldn't?"

"_If I saw you there in your little sequins and tassels, I might be tempted to...push you down a flight of stairs."_

"Didn't he love all the stuff she did that you couldn't stand?"

"_I don't shake it, and I don't listen to ABBA."_

"And wasn't he hot for her loooong before you could even tolerate being _around _her?"

For some reason, all Hyde could see in his mind was his eighteenth birthday party, when Jacks had come running up to him to plant a kiss on his cheek. He could hear Donna ranting to him later about how she'd had to decorate the whole place all by herself because Jackie and Fez had disappeared off by themselves. He could see Jackie sitting practically on Fez's lap, the two of them whispering to one another at the table in the far corner of the Pinciotti's living room, and suddenly Hyde felt very, very stupid. Talk about being someone's rebound.

"Look. Steve. Fez called me 'Jackie' in bed way too many times to count. Okay? And don't think I didn't see the way she'd been looking at him, either." Laurie perched herself on the edge of the table with her elbow. "You just can't go forcing circles into squares. It never works. And I oughta know, I've forced enough squares."

Again Hyde thought of the "abomination" he'd stumbled into and shuddered to himself. He wondered how many times Jackie'd wanted to call him Fez in the heat of their moments and finished off the last of the beer, figuring he was better off not knowing. He tossed the empty can onto the table and leaned back in his chair, summoning all the zen he had to keep his stomach from rebelling all over the table and Forman's sister. A sigh heaved out of him as he stared at the ceiling, watching wisps of smoke dance in the dim lamp light. He concentrated on visions of Page and Plant tearing up a stage, of cannabis fields forever, of freshly washed and waxed El Caminos gleaming in summer sun and adorned by the Swedish bikini team, until the crippling nausea mellowed into a nice empty nothingness. The pressure that had sat on his chest for months eased up on its grip little by little. Hyde breathed in and slowly exhaled. There. Better. Like a blank slate, man, wiped clean.

"Whatever," he mumbled to Laurie, still gazing upwards. His senses picked up the sound of her body lifting itself from her chair and stalking around the table. He felt the mild sting of her palm smacking his shoulder with what could have possibly been affection in another lifetime and was kind of grateful he could still feel anything at all, really. Could've been a lot worse, he supposed. He could have been chained down to that loud-ass wrecking ball of a girl right now, letting her force him into a life of servitude he was never meant for, into years of trying to express himself in ways he wasn't equipped for in order to quell her insatiable needs. On the other side of the coin, he could have been still stuck there in Point Place, playing the part of third wheel in their dwindled little circle of friends and forever battling the urge to play in traffic any time Fez kissed Jackie, any time he took her back to the home they shared. No, thank you. He'd take baby ball-punches any day of the week. They hurt less.

_At least now you know what it's like. _

Hm. Hyde pondered that while his head spun, not unpleasantly either. Yeah. The little voice in his head was right on that one; now he'd experienced what the narcs and Hallmark cards called "love", hadn't he? As long as he lived on this rock of an Earth, Hyde probably wouldn't be able to figure out exactly why he'd ended up experiencing it with a spoiled, insanely self-obsessed little narc-spawn like Jackie _Burkhardt_, but still. It had happened. Some of it hadn't been all bad. At least now she knew how to blackmail a guy properly, although hopefully she wasn't pulling that bag of tricks out on his foreign buddy just yet. Hyde would have liked to think she'd learned something from all of last year's soap opera bullshit, and he guessed she had, judging by how she'd finally figured out who she was really meant to force into servitude. Hyde smiled at the mental image of Fez decked out in a business suit and briefcase, pecking Jackie on the cheek on his way to work. Yeah. Yeah, she'd been put on the Earth to boss men around and Fez was just the man for the job. And _that_ right there meant Steven Hyde was a free man, having dodged the mother of all bullets. Steven Hyde was free to be himself again, and thank fucking Christ. About time.

"Hey." Laurie was peering down at his upturned face. "You all right? Looks like you're gonna ralph or something."

Hyde cleared his throat and righted himself into a sitting position again. "Nope." He said, the word coming out a little strained as he stretched. "Nope. I'm good."

"Good. Cause I'm not buzzed enough yet and I don't know about you, but I fucking hate drinking alone."

Laurie set a fresh, icy can of Bud in front of Hyde and sat back to crack her own can open. Hyde stared at the beer for a few seconds and then at Laurie. Y'know, the earth-mother-whore wasn't so bad when she didn't feel like inflicting pain on others for kicks; actually, she was starting to remind him a little of Sam. What with the way she just brought him another beer for no reason, and how she actually listened to his Burkhardt saga - well, once he'd given her enough interesting tidbits to keep her sated, anyway. He cracked his can open and took a long swallow of ale, watching over the rim as the light from the television played upon Laurie's deceptively sweet features.

_No. No, no, no, a billion times no. Soft voluptuous evil equals steaming hot death of the soul. Anyone knows this, it's you, you bastard. NO._

Still, maybe he'd taken an interest in Sam for a reason. Maybe she'd reminded him of someone familiar at a time when everything in his life turned all surreal and disorienting. He thought about how both women had apparently been in close proximity and wondered how Red and Kitty would have reacted had he returned from Vegas with Laurie on his arm. He wondered if he would have been able to witness another hot girl fight once Jackie found out. Hyde watched Laurie watching "Three's" and wondered about a lot of things. He _did_ have that weird way of getting hot for bitchy, evil chicks...maybe life really had been trying to point him in the right direction for once.

_No! _

Or maybe it was the drugs. Sometimes it was hard to tell. Maybe he should have quit "circling" for good after all.

"I need to go to bed," he mumbled once the show ended and the local newscast came on.

"Me too." Laurie yawned and stumbled up out of her chair, swaying towards him in a rather appealing manner. "So, you coming, Steve?"

She knelt before him, shifting her way between his legs and kissed him, a lot more softly than she had in any of Hyde's old fantasies. Dizzy, Hyde reached up to pull her to him and deepen the kiss, sampling her eagerly. She tasted like smoke and brown sugar. Not a bad combination...and damn, she felt so soft in his palms - god_damn_ did that make him want to find out - _NO!_

"Nah," Hyde gasped, breaking the kiss. "Thanks, though. I think I'll just ride the couch for tonight."

Laurie gave him that hot little smirk, which only served to rob that much more blood from his brain. "Yeah?"

"Yeah."

She shrugged, pushing away from his body with a drunken shimmy. "Suit yourself, orphan. It's not like we won't have any more chances. Right?"

Hyde responded with a bipartisan nod and forced his eyes to stay on the TV screen while she stumbled through the den and up the stairs to sleep it off. He exhaled and proceeded to drain most of the Budweiser can in three long gulps. That was close; stared right the fuck down the barrel of the gun that time, and Hyde knew he'd be staring at it more than a few more times if he was gonna crash here. He shook his head. Christ knew he'd gotten in enough trouble the last time he'd made a habit of making out with a hot acquaintance - apparently not enough to stave off the craving to go there again with Forman's sister, which was really saying something.

_Yeah. Says you're a grade-A moron when you've got enough buzz in you to burn away common sense. Time to start thinking with your _other_ head, there, my friend._

Stoned way past the point of wide awake, Hyde let himself rot into a state of semi-consciousness while Carson and McMahon tried to cheer him up. No time for sleep now. Now he had some serious decisions to ponder before dawn showed its face. Time was a'wastin'.

Hyde reached yet again for the baggie and Zippo.

* * *

Absently, Donna smoothed the edges of her dress and stared out into the neon-tinged night sky while the bass line from "Heart of Glass" thumped underneath the sidewalk. The wait for the club had morphed into an infinite one, and she was starting to feel more than a little impatient, out here in the cold beside the pathetically shivering boyfriend who had regaled her all day about his adventures in the Congo and spent all night making up for lost time yet hadn't spoken a word about where they stood, where _he_ stood. Having to endure all that cutesy squabbling coming from a certain dark-haired couple behind them was definitely not helping. Donna suppressed a sigh and had to wonder why, exactly, she had accepted Jackie's double date invitation in the first place - although she did feel a bit more at ease after she'd let Fez dye her hair back to red beforehand (while he alternately touched up Jackie's dark locks to assure her that the green was gone for good), and it _was_ good to see her friend giggling and happy again. She supposed it was worth it for that, if little else. 

"Oh, man, she whines at him more than she did Kelso," Eric groaned to Donna under his breath, his teeth chattering. She rolled her eyes and slid her arm through his. "Aw, cheer up, Frosty. At least things are a little quieter this time around."

"Not by much," he grumbled. "And hey, don't go calling me Frosty - I'd like to see your pale skin take a beating by the brutal desert sun for months on end and still be able to withstand these temperatures, okay? Seriously."

Donna elbowed him. "Oh, wah, wah, crybaby. I'm starting to think you whine at me more than Jackie does at anyone."

Eric winced and glanced behind him, rubbing the jabbed spot between his ribs. "Says you. Me, I'll be happy to sit back and let poor Fez be the judge of that one."

"...will you stop? You look enchanting. Now quit obsessing about it and relax."

Jackie's tone was nails on chalkboard to Donna's fragile nerves. "But _ba_by, I can't believe you made me wear this thing. It's so old and filmy and ew, purple! _So_ '77."

"I love you in that dress. I fell _in love _with you in that dress. Besides, you know purple flatters your eyes."

"Everything flatters my eyes, that's not the point."

"Oh, you don't have one. You just love to whine when you're bored, my pet..."

The line of hopeful club goers shifted forward a few steps; all four friends shuffled along with the crowd and stopped again. Eric shook his head at the pavement.

"Sorry about this," Donna said to him, and immediately wondered why it was her offering an apology for something out of her control. God, one heartbreaking kiss in a driveway and she'd put herself right back in his mercies. "I know you didn't fly home just to freeze out here listening to Fez and Jackie. I'm sorry."

Eric looked startled. "I'm fine," he said slowly, squinting at her in the neon glare. "Look, Donna, I know I'm a pansy-ass, but this is fine with me. I don't care what we do; I came back because I needed to be home. Okay? _You_ are home." He took her palms in his and massaged the backs of her hands with his thumbs. "If there's anything to be learned from all my teenaged stupidity, it's that."

Donna smiled in spite of herself and looked away. He made forgiveness seem so easy. "I know. Yeah, I know."

"I'll prove it, Donna. I've got plans, big ones. I'm going to find us a great place in Madison and build you a wonderful life."

She nodded, pulling her hands from his. "It's going to take time, Eric. Yeah, last night we were back in the Cruiser like old times, but two weeks ago we weren't even speaking. And I was - I was with someone else." The heavy sickness that had sat in her stomach since having to spend Christmas Eve in Randy's apartment suddenly felt a whole lot heavier. _God, Pinciotti, what the hell were you thinking, taking him back so frickin' quickly? No, really, what were you _thinking?_ That he'd changed? That _you'd_ changed? Whatever. All that peroxide must have bleached your brain. _"I mean, we've fucked this up way too many times, you know?"

"Uh, correction, _I've_ fucked this up way too many times," Eric murmured, quietly, purposely, and lay his arm across Donna's stiffening shoulders. "And in case I haven't made it clear by now, uh, I couldn't care less about that other guy or any of that. I don't even care if you took a sledgehammer to every piece of Star Wars memorabilia I own, Darth knows I earned it. And if it had been you who'd left, I'm pretty sure there'd be more than a few of your Doors LP's feeling my wrath, okay?"

Donna broke into giggles at the mental image of an enraged, probably shirtless Eric Forman standing in front of a huge record pile, struggling and probably failing to lift his weapon of choice. Eric, who was probably relieved just to see her cracking a smile again, leaned in for a kiss. "Okay," Donna replied in a whisper, wrapping her arms around his waist. "Yeah, okay." Eric beamed and kissed her again, laughing gently against her lips. "Yeah! See? It doesn't even matter anymore. I love you, you love me, apparently, and you and I are gonna make it."

Donna forced herself to stop giggling and held up her little finger. "Pinky swear," she said to him, and Eric blinked.

"What?"

"Like when we were kids. Pinky swear on it. Swear to me that you're over it for good and that you're going to stay with me no matter what. Swear it and I'll believe you."

Eric goggled at her a little, switching his gaze from her face to her hand back to her face, and finally extended his hand. "Okay, I swear that I'm over it for good and I'll always be by your side."

"No matter what?"

"No matter what."

"Even if someday we really get married and I bombard you with bridal brochures and keep you in department stores with Fenton for hours on end?"

"No matter what."

"Even if we're both unemployed graduates scraping by in a little trailer and I have to sell your G.I. Joes to buy groceries?"

Eric almost grimaced and managed to smile at the last second. "Well, that's what food stamps are for, but yes, no matter what."

"Even if - "

"Donna! Yes! I love you more than life and I swear it. I swear on everything, now just - " He hooked his little finger around hers and shook hard for emphasis. "Shake on it already. Geez."

"Ow! Okay, okay, I'm shaking, I'm shaking!" Donna laughed as he pulled her to him by the finger and dipped her with a flourish that was just pure Eric. The crowd around them squealed, titillated. Donna slapped at his chest playfully.

"Hey. Skywalker wannabe. Either kiss me or put me down."

Eric made a contemplative face. "Actually, now that I've gotten all the adventure out of me, I feel...more like a Solo than a Skywalker, per se..."

"Christ, fine, _Han_, just shut your face and suck mine already."

"Oh! Well. Your wish is my command, Princess..."

Titillated squeals grew into a hazy cacophony of whoops and whistles the longer his mouth stayed pressed to hers, and Donna frankly couldn't be bothered to care. He wanted her. Eric truly wanted her, truly loved her, and he wouldn't be running anymore. Warmth radiated through her body from somewhere deep in her chest at the feel of that dead weight dissolving for good and oh, God, nothing from Hyde's stash - or Randy's - could ever possibly make her this high.

"Awwwww!"

Jackie's mocking coo, on the other hand, could harsh anyone's mellow.

"Fezzy, look at that, isn't that sweet? 'Mom and Dad' are back together again!"

"Ay, darling, I promised myself I wouldn't cry...I am a filthy liar!"

Donna felt Eric groan against her lips, breaking the spell altogether. Eric raised her back up and offered all the smiling faces a happy, sheepish expression. Donna folded her arms over her breasts.

"Jackie. Fez. Get over it. You don't see us ooh-ing and aah-ing every time the two of you get all PDA in front of the world."

"Not in awe, anyway," Eric said, earning him dirty looks from both Donna and Jackie. Jackie tossed her hair coyly at the redhead and smiled.

"Blah, blah, blah. I say you're both just jealous of our stunning beauty as a couple."

"More like just stunned you're a couple in the first place."

"Eric!"

"Oh, come on, Donna, like you weren't thinking the same thing!"

"Uh, _yeah_, I said so to their faces, but that doesn't mean you should! God, be polite and let them have their disturbing fun before it inevitably blows up in their faces."

Eric snickered and gave a cough that sounded like "Yoko". Jackie rolled her eyes at him. "Oh, whatever. Man-girl." She stood on tiptoe to whisper something in Fez's ear. Both started snickering, glancing surreptitiously at Eric and Donna, and then lunged for each other. The crowd around them erupted again with shrill, obnoxious hoots and wolf-whistles. Eric and Donna both spun away in horror.

"What the hell!" Donna cried, shielding her face with her hands. "Hey, okay, you need to stop that, like, now, Jackie, seriously."

"Yeah, we covered for your asses last night and we're not doing it again," Eric added, daring to peek behind him again and seriously regretting it. "Oh God! Fez, you can't do that to her in public, man! There are _laws_ for that - thank cripes."

"...Excuse me, move it please, out of the way..."

The huddled mass of people got shoved aside layer by layer by a trio of authoritive, burly looking bouncers, one of whom Eric recognized instantly. The man strode up to Fez - or what was once Fez and was now just one passionate mass clinging to another - and tapped his shoulder pointedly.

"Hey, Ponch. Gimme a break and nix the public groping, please. Last thing anyone here wants is for you to set off some kinda weirdo Studio 54 shit here in the streets." The bouncer paused and glanced at Eric. "Hey, it's the Goose! The hot redhead decided to keep you around after all, huh? Good for you." In one swift move he peeled the lust-drunk couple off of each other and stepped in between them. "The Goose's right. Keep it clean or I'm not letting any of you in. You get me?"

"You can't do that!" A breathless Jackie squawked at him, hands on her hips. "I am a _beautiful_ woman and Fez here is a beautiful man and if we can't control ourselves in the presence of others, well, then that is not my problem and you, you are just going to have to deal with it, you hulking macho poseur!"

"That's right, interracial coupling is not a crime!" Fez added loudly, pulling Jackie to his side.

"I can't wait to get to Madison," Donna muttered, more to herself than to her childhood sweetheart, and pulled her silk scarf tighter around her shoulders. Eric cleared his throat and stepped forward just in time to stop the bouncer from grabbing Fez by the neck.

"Sir? Sir! I don't recommend doing that; he'll either snap like a twig or puke on you. And I can guarantee you that Jackie here will be shrieking your ear off the entire time."

Jackie nodded proudly in confirmation. The man turned on Eric and raised an eyebrow, waiting. Eric stepped a little closer. "Look, I'll make a deal with you. I'll personally keep them from making a scene again if you'll be kind enough to let us inside. Come on, man, it's the eighties, time for a fresh start. Please, just let the geese dance? Just for tonight."

The bouncer shot a weary glance at Fez and Jackie, who struck a pose together and smirked at him. "You'll keep an eye on them the whole night?"

Eric nodded, privately wondering if such a feat was even possible. The bouncer stared him down a bit longer, then called his friends off and stepped aside to unlock the velvet rope. "Fine. Go. But you better keep your word there, Goose Boy. Hear?"

"Loud and clear, thanks." Eric took Donna's hand as they were ushered indoors, enveloped by the pulsing beats of the Whispers as they went. Donna kissed Eric on the cheek, overflowing with pride.

"Congratulations, Goose Boy. You just earned your _cojones_ back."

"Shut up."

The couple grinned at each other and strutted on ahead, having already forgotten Eric's promise and left Jackie and Fez behind to stroll at their own pace.

"Good!" Jackie trilled, waving them onward. "I can hardly wait to get away from all these stupid prudes, God. They just don't get it."

"Of course not, darling, and why would they?" Fez took her hand in his and kissed it gallantly; Jackie's anger evaporated at the touch of his lips. "But I want you to forget about all that now. The night is ours, my love, and I, for one, am aching to hit that floor and burn this disco out." His eyes sparkled with mischief. "How about you?"

Jackie laughed at him. "You got that from Michael, didn't you?"

"Kelso?"

"No! Jackson, silly!"

Fez perked up his ears excitedly. "Noooo, no, listen, it is _calypso!_ Come on, Disco Lady, I'm gonna show you the night of your life!"

Jackie yelped, giggling as she lurched after him. "Baby, no, that's not what I _meant _- "

But the swirling wall of sound had already enveloped them both, the bass alone throbbing through every cell in Jackie's body as her lover guided her to the center of the floor.

"_And the beat goes on_

_Just like my love everlasting_

_And the beat goes on_

_Still moving strong on and on..."_

The way he was staring into her then, the way the dance floor cleared and its patrons formed a joyous, cheering circle around them seemed to lift Jackie out of time and space entirely, nearly four years backwards to when they were young, free, open to every possibility of life. Back to that night all of their friends had watched them both shake off all their inhibitions, all their cares. Back when, she figured, Michael and Steven first had a little taste of what it was like to be left on the sidelines. That night she'd first had a taste of what it was like to be unconditionally adored.

"_Do you ever wonder_

_Why to win somebody's got to lose_

_I might as well get over the blues_

_Just like fishing in the ocean, there'll always be someone new..._

_Who'd love you better?_

_You did me wrong, but I've been through stormy weather,_

_and the beat goes on..."_

She felt Fez grip her hips with sure hands and pull her body right up against his, forcing her gently to follow the beat. Sweat trickled down the small of her back as they undulated together, smiling knowingly, their movements liquefying into a smooth, intimate rhythm. Jackie pressed her forehead to his, watching his eyes.

"_Just like my love everlasting..."_

"I love you," she mouthed. "I love you the most," he replied, and dipped her without warning; the crowd squealed in approval.

"_Don't stop for nobody  
This time I'll keep my feet on solid ground  
Now I understand myself when I'm down  
Like the sweet sound of hip music  
There'll always be something newTo keep the tables turning..."  
_

Jackie giggled and let him flip her back up, extending his arm so she could pirouette for the screaming crowd and collide again with his body. Everything after that kind of blended together in a dreamy haze of colored strobe lights, throbbing disco beats, and whirling, undulating movement. All the while she clung to Fez, letting her head spin and letting herself drown in the feeling of her weighty past dissolving away, until the memories were nothing but resolved and meaningless images scattering from her psyche at last. She laughed out loud, kissing him over and over again, and oh, God, nothing from any circle with Kelso or Hyde could ever make her feel as high as Fez could, just by being the sweet, sexy, compassionate goon that he was. Just by loving Jackie for who she was. Just by making her feel so free.

"_Hey this super song  
There'll never be an ending_

_And the beat goes on ..._"

* * *

_**TBC **_

**P.S. - The classic Whispers' song "And the Beat Goes On" managed to work it's way in here. That, too, belongs not to me, but I'm using it because it's too perfect. **


	5. Conclusion: It's The Falling In Love

**Conclusion: Trust In Me**

_Disclaimer: "That 70's Show" is Casey-Werner's property, not mine, I make no profit from their gains. Also went a little crazy with the songficness, so all lyrics, from the following songs:_

"_Don't Leave Me This Way" - by Thelma Houston_

"_Rock With You" - by Michael Jackson_

"_Even The Losers" - by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers_

_...are property of their respective record companies / publishers, creators, etc. etc. No copyright infringement is intended; please don't sue, my bills are overdue._

_And as usual, this is a happy-ending Jackie & Fez pairing that contains massive smut. Y'all know where to turn if that's not your thing, and y'all know what to do if it is. Thanks for reading; though I've enjoyed every bit, for all intensive purposes this should be my last 70's fanfic._

**4 pm.**

**October, 1978.**

**Eric Forman's basement...**

"You know, that sweater wasn't on sale or anything. I paid full price for it." Michael's smirk curled up into a proud little grin. "Pretty sweet, huh?"

Jackie closed her eyes briefly and resisted the urge to slap that satisfied look off his face. "Yes," she replied slowly. "But it gets _less_ sweet the more you talk about it."

Michael waved her off. "Sorry, I'm done. Twenty-seven dollars. I'm done." Then under his breath, "Paid extra for the gift wrap."

Ugh, never in her _life_ was Jackie so glad to see that skinny neighbor boy come trudging down the stairs, with gloom hanging over his head and drama primed to unload itself on his ever-patient lumberjack of a fiancee. Jackie grunted and dropped her weight beside Donna, content to let someone else's issues filter inside her sheltered brain for once. Anything other than the tangled web she'd spun between all but two of her best friends was refreshing, and Jackie couldn't even feel sorry for herself now. All of this was her own doing, a result of all her fleeting obsessions colliding at once. She rolled her eyes to herself; Eric noticed and scowled, likely thinking she'd meant to insult him. Jackie looked away, lost in her thoughts.

God, could she _be_ any more stupid?! Tossing one obsession to the wind after it deserted her one time too many; chaining herself to the other obsession in what had started as a way to keep her first obsession's attention piqued. Now she had to tell herself Hyde - no, Steven, it was Steven now - was a way to find some kind of security, now that she'd overheard that one "discussion" between her mom and dad - the hysterical, screeching one involving the cabin, and the bank accounts, and the house she'd lived in all her life. At least she knew Steven would eventually provide a roof over her head as long as she kept providing the friendly benefits. He was the kind of grease monkey a girl could depend on as a solid backup plan if she nagged him enough; Michael could be depended on to bestow sweet comments on her and the occasional fluffy present on forgotten birthdays. Funny...most of those attributes used to apply to someone else. Someone who barely talked to her anymore. Someone whom she used to love and trust with all her heart, but the damned fear inside made her a coward around him. It always had. And he knew it.

He was definitely flaunting that knowledge now, too. What with that tightwad dirty-blonde beast he'd been parading around on his arm (where Jackie should have been parading), holding dinner parties for (dinner parties that should have been for Jackie), torturing Jackie with altogether every time he spoke her name. Nina this, Nina that, Nina freaking everything! Just like he'd done with Rhonda, like with Caroline, and most of all with that annoying dipwad Patti. Again, though, all her fault. She could have been an adult about it. She could have stayed by his side after spending the night with him, could have told all her friends she was with a foreign prince - those dumb bitch cheerleaders would believe pretty much anything that came out of her mouth. It would've been easy once her parents and her real circle of friends got over themselves, and once Jackie herself had gotten over all the old messages the former had stuffed down deep into her psyche. But no. No, too many times she'd thrown away her chances with Fez, and so she'd substituted someone else in his rightful place, just so that huge, gaping hole in her chest would be filled up with something - anything. Anyone. She'd closed the greatest of doors, permanently.

The basement door swung open then, startling Jackie out of her reverie. There stood Hy - _Steven_, dammit, Steven! - and Fez, both glowing, both beaming like idiots. Why was her stomach sinking all of a sudden?

"Attention, everyone." Hyde's voice boomed in the tiny room. "Our friend Fez has some wonderful news."

That starry, triumphant grin was unnerving her. An urge struck Jackie suddenly to jump up and leave the room, maybe without ever going back.

"Knock, knock!"

Michael's voice answered from somewhere behind the couch. "Who's there?"

"I did it!!" Fez crowed, casting his eyes to the ceiling. Voices erupted all around Jackie, whose stomach had now pretty much crashed down through the floor. She stared at him, concentrating as hard as she could in spite of all the talking. This was not happening. This was _not_ happening.

"All right!"

"Way to go, buddy!"

"Oh, my God!"

Jackie gave a start and looked around her, realizing she'd voiced this aloud. Nobody seemed to have noticed...except for Fez, whose eyes were boring into hers like hot pokers. Taunting her, making it clear she'd given him exactly the reaction he'd expected. Jackie stiffened indignantly. And what right did he have in the first place, that lying foreign sleaze? No right, that's what, no right whatsoever to just throw away the one sweetest moment they'd had together and hand his frigid whorey blonde-beast all the credit! Resentment roared to a boil inside her.

"Wait, I want to hear this," Michael was saying. "I did it who?"

Jackie fixed Fez with a condescending stare and a smile as he sank down between herself and Donna. "Fez," she cooed, patting his firm thigh. "I can't _believe_ you finally lost your _virginity_!"

Fez stared back until Jackie was forced to look away, over at Steven, who was settling into the lawn chair next to the ratty couch. "Wait, this isn't like the time you got a hamster, named it Virginity and then lost it, is it?" Eric asked. Fez looked up and grinned rather evilly.

"No." His tone was lilting. His eyes turned on Jackie. "This is the real thing."

"I had a hamster once," Michael mused aloud. "Tied him to a helium balloon with a note. He made it all the way to Minnesota."

Eric turned to Michael. "Alive?"

Michael gave him a look and ripped open his popsicle wrapper. "No, I'm gonna send a dead hamster up in a balloon."

"Well, little buddy, I always knew you could do it," Her third obsession said to the first - the only, Jackie was realizing. Not the world's best feeling. "I just figured you'd be forty and it would be out of pity."

Jackie wanted so badly to glare at that frizzy ball-and-chain but she managed to restrain herself. Barely. Wasn't that always the way?

Eric was laughing. "So, tell us about it."

_Please don't, _Jackie entreated silently. _You know, Fez. We both know. And I'm sorry, I'm so sorry, but please, please don't do this to me, not to my face. Please._

"It was incredible," Fez proclaimed, and Jackie's heart sank. "Nina and I started kissing in the living room, and then we moved into the bedroom, where we undressed. And then, well..." His voice dropped; so did his face. "We did it."

Michael made a sort of excited scoffing sound as he plunked down in Steven's usual chair. "Details, Fez, we need details!"

_No, we don't, Michael_, she thought, _we _really _don't_. But she watched and listened to Fez anyway, just out of sheer morbid curiosity. The boy with skin of brown sugar heaved a grandiose sigh. "Well, our faces didn't line up right, so I kept...bumping my chin on her nose. And there were sounds."

Immediately: "What kind of sounds?"

Fez glanced across at Steven. "Well, I will say this, it was not applause. And there was no romantic music, like in the movies, so I had to hum."

Jackie gaped at him, eyes wide. Oh, he was a horrible liar, just horrible! And why couldn't anyone see it? Why were they just drinking it all in obediently? God, everyone had to know by now that Fez wasn't nearly the loveless, porn-addict, closet-voyeur loser he claimed to be; lately even the goons on the football team were starting to leave him alone, and she had seen Pam Macy and all her slut friends appreciatively sizing him up, giggling every time he strolled past them in those skintight corduroys - yeah, that once creepy-and-unnatural foreign boy had been a changed man for a long time, all thanks to Jackie. So why couldn't these four see the truth standing stark naked there in plain sight? But then again, how could she expect everyone else to see what she could never let herself accept?

_Oh, my God. _Jackie glanced over at Steven, then over at Michael, and lastly at Fez. _I'm an idiot, a stupid, stupid tramp. I've ruined everything. And now he gets to rub it in my face!_

"...And then Nina told me to stop humming, but then I started again without realizing it, and then she got mad, and then I think she got sad."

_Sad? Sad?! You want to know sadness, Fez? You foreign jackass, you wouldn't know sad if I beat you over the head and cracked your skull open with it! You have no idea how it feels to have lost everything good in your life forever. None at all_.

"Don't worry, Fez." Jackie pouted at him and took the opportunity to squeeze his thigh one last time. Then the wind-up...and the pitch: "She probably just felt bad because she was doing it with a foreigner."

Oh, yes, she felt everyone in the room giving her the evil eye, especially Donna, who was wearing one of those how-can-you-stand-to-be-this-cruel looks on her face. Fez, though, barely gave Jackie the benefit of a glance. "And afterwards, I went in the bathroom and cried a little, and then I snuck out the back door."

_No, you did _not! The scream was building in Jackie's throat. _You didn't hum, you didn't bump anyone's nose, and you sure as hell didn't cry in anyone's bathroom! She is not your goddess! _I _am your goddess, you made love to _me, _lost your precious virginity to _me! _We spent half the night in my car and you made me come three times, and I know because I've been vibrating the memory away every night ever since! Every time I had sex with Michael, every time Steven has sex with me, I'm always having sex with you - no, no, no, no, no, not just Having Sex, I'm making love to _you! _You were the one who showed me what the difference was. You won titles for me and tried to help me win them by myself, you drove me home untouched when you thought I was drunk, you always listened, really listened to me when I had no one else to turn to! You were a true friend, and you didn't just want me for my money or my body like these other two peasants! You wanted me for me. And now it's like you couldn't care less. _

Donna was laying her arm around him and pulling him close to her body; Jackie couldn't have felt more jealous if she tried. "Poor Fez. At least it couldn't have been any worse."

Fez gave another sigh. "I left my underwear in her bathroom."

Everyone groaned - Jackie hoped with sympathy - at the admission and crowded around to pat Fez on the back anyway. She remembered how he'd left his briefs underneath the passenger seat and how she'd found them the morning after Steven's party, remembered sneaking down to the laundry room and washing them so she could slip them back to Fez later with a hidden kiss and a grateful smile. A little bemused smirk curled up the corners of her lips; at least he'd kept one detail relatively intact, meaning he still remembered. Which could have meant he still cared. Which could have meant that someday, if their stars realigned...oh, who was she kidding? He might have remembered, but this...this clearly demonstrated how little he gave a damn anymore. Jackie sighed to herself, casting a resigned look at a distracted Steven. _Suck it up, Jackie Burkhardt. He's no Fez; heck, he's no Michael. But being with Hyde is better than nothing, which is exactly what you're left with if you give him up too._

Hours later, after being bestowed with a lovely used Zeppelin tee and, she figured, officially claimed as her polar opposite's trophy, Jackie was shivering heatedly underneath a strangely passionate Steven in the El Camino's back seat, feeling safer and lighter in the cover of darkness. Her eyes were closed; her body was responsive, and as a result her mind was free to drift, free to relent to him and to the sensations of comfort his touch provided. And then, out of nowhere, "Dream On" came on the radio, adding insult to already festering injuries. Her skin instantly felt the memories of being caressed, teased, explored by Fez's caring hands, being tasted, penetrated, possessed by true love. And that was when Jackie began to cry. Looking back on it, Jackie would remember the horrified look on Steven's face, how quickly he'd backed off and how profusely he'd apologized, like he'd thrust into her too hard or something. Jackie, mortified, had assured him between sobs not to worry, he hadn't done anything to hurt her, it wasn't his fault.

"Steven, I'm sorry. I-I guess I'm just not in the mood anymore," she said miserably, and Hyde's eyes had narrowed with gentle suspicion. Jackie cried harder, knowing how much less gentle that suspicion would've been had he any idea who she was really grieving over. She sat up and pushed him aside, sniffling.

"Can I change the station?"

He studied her. "Sure."

Once she'd wiggled back into her panties, Jackie climbed over the passenger seat and flipped the dial until she landed on a disco station playing "Don't Leave Me This Way". She flopped back down next to a still half-naked Steven and nestled against him, letting her tears flow as the song bounced along, trying to flush out her pain.

"_Don't leave me this way, I can't survive _

_I can't stay alive _

_Without your love, oh baby don't leave me this way, no..."_

"Jackie..." Hyde said slowly while she continued to sob. "Um, call me crazy, but I'm beginning to suspect that something might be, oh, I don't know, _bothering_ you."

"_I can't exist, I'll surely miss _

_Your tender kiss...don't leave me this way..._"

"No," she said to his chest. "It's nothing."

"Uh-huh. If you say so."

"I say so."

"_Ohhhh, baby! _

_My heart is full of love and desire for you_

_Now come on down and do what you've got to do..."_

"It's just that...it's just that you almost never cry. You're a chronic whiner, but you are not generally a crier. Especially not when there's disco music playing in my presence, cause I know how you love to drive me insane with that shit. You should be laughing your ass off at me right now. And you're not. Which in turn indicates to me that something is wrong." Pause. "And if something is wrong, you should be yakking my ear off about it. But you're not. And that makes me more than a little nervous."

"_You started this fire down in my soul _

_Now can't you see it's burning, out of control!"_

"Because that would mean that something's really, really wrong." Steven gave the top of her head a light, uncertain little noogie. "C'mon. Unload on me. Annoy the hell out of me so I can sleep in peace tonight, huh?"

"_Come on and satisfy the need in me,_

_Cause only your good lovin' can set me free_

_Set me free!_"

_I'm crying because you're right, Steven Hyde, _she thought. _You and I aren't meant to be a couple. We're forcing this. We're going to end up old, fat, and miserable together because we can't stand each other, but it's too late to turn back now and neither of us can even say it aloud._

"I'll be okay, Steven." Jackie patted his knee briskly. "I'm, um, I'm just PMS-ing. That's all."

"Then shouldn't you be yelling at me, or shaming me into buying you diamonds or something?"

"Steven Hyde! Since when do you have the right to tell me what to do with my raging hormones?!"

His laughter surprised her. "Yeah, see, like that! That's the Burkhardt I know and love!"

Jackie squinted at him, her heart thumping. "Steven, you - you love me?"

"_Set me free, set me free, set me free..."_

Hyde's face froze. "Uhhhhmm...I love _parts_ of you," he cracked.

Jackie shook her head, feeling stupid for even posing the question aloud. _No, no, of course you don't. You can't. You have no idea how and you're not even the type of guy who could learn. Unlike _some _people who prove their feelings so often they leave no doubts in your heart, and mind, that you're the one they love._

"That's okay, you don't have to say it," she said quietly, that gross tear-lump thickening again in her throat. "I already know."

"Aw, come on, Jackie - "

"No, no, you know what, Hyde, just _forget_ it! Forget it. Just hold me for a few, okay? And then take me home. I'm tired."

"_Don't you understand?"_

Hyde frowned as if to say something else, and Jackie realized her mistake a moment too late. Of course, it could be easily explained away later as just a pointed barb at his pride, but each mistake she made exposed more and more of her secrets. The hole in her chest now felt like an open, stinging wound, bleeding and weeping. It hurt so badly...Jackie wondered while she wallowed in Hyde's arms if she'd ever be able to get over Fez for good.

"_I'm at your command..."_

She wondered if she'd ever stop obsessing about what could've been. If she'd ever forgive herself for literally taking him in only to push him away. If this stupid conscience of hers would ever finally let her get on with her life, with or without him.

"_Baby, don't, don't leave me this way..."_

..."Ow."

"_Don't leave me this way, no..."_

"Ow, damn!"

Jackie shook herself aware, away from the past, and fully forced herself back into the present. She looked over at Eric, who was grunting and shifting uneasily on the oddly-shaped lilac pleather couch. No matter which way he turned himself, his bony frame just couldn't get comfortable on those large rounded ridges. "Seriously, Jackie, this is the weirdest piece of furniture I've ever tried to sit on. This is ridiculous."

"It's trendy," Jackie offered lamely, giggling. Which was true; Le Disco had apparently gone through quite a few upgrades since she'd danced there last. Gone were most of the glittering silver streamers, replaced by a brand new array of tiny red and blue strobe lights. The skinny black dinette sets that once accented the expansive room had been ditched in favor of this huge, club-encircling purple divan. The smooth wood parquet dance floor had been ripped up and replaced with a rather delicious state-of-the-art LED model, which now was flashing and throbbing to the same Thelma Houston song that had triggered those old, sad memories. But that was okay! Y'know, change was proving to be a far more positive force than she'd ever given it credit for.

"Fuzzy Navel for you," Fez suddenly announced, placing the tall drink in front of her. "And Sex on the Beach for me."

"But there aren't any beaches in Wisconsin," Jackie replied, grinning wickedly.

"It hardly matters," he quipped, returning the grin with a lingering, breath-light kiss as he reclaimed his seat beside her. She took a delicate sip from her drink and watched Donna teeter over to Eric's side of the table, nearly dropping his cola. "And a virgin Coke for my not-so-virgin high school schweeeetieeee," she cooed, sliding next to him with a tipsy laugh. "_My_ Coke's not a virgin either! Shhhhhh!"

"Yeah. Um, and how much rum found it's way in there this time?" Eric asked her, pointedly looking at the collection of glasses that had accumulated in front of his girlfriend over the course of the night. Donna snorted and grinned at him.

"Ooh, quite a bit, Forman, quite a bit," she replied matter-of-factly. "But I am _not_ drunk, I'm just bah-_liss_-fully happy. There is a difference."

"You...may be a mix of both, there, m'lady."

Jackie noticed the beats pulsing from the sound system were slowing down, segueing into a familiar monotonous tempo; across the table, Donna's eyes immediately lit up at the first notes of "Miss You".

"No way!" She slapped the table, laughing. Everyone's glasses rattled. "No way, man, they're actually playing the _Stones_ in a disco? _Real music?_" Grinning, Donna hauled back a good portion of her drink and grabbed for Eric's hand. "Oh, we have got to take advantage of this. Come on!"

Eric squeaked in protest as his girlfriend practically dragged him out of the booth. "Wait! Donna! Wait, I - "

But the newly reborn redhead was already wading her way through the crowd, taking Eric along whether he liked it or not. "C'mon, 'Rainbow', show Mama your _skills_, baby!"

Fez and Jackie sat back and watched, laughing quietly to each other at the spectacle their friends were making of themselves. Jackie bent towards her boyfriend's ear.

"What do you think? Should we go out there and save them?"

He gave a breathy kind of snicker and took a sip from his glass. "No," Fez replied, shaking his head. "No, _amour_, let them have their fun. At least until everyone else starts to show signs of serious trauma; then maybe we can intervene."

Jackie laughed and nestled closer to his body. Funny, she mused. Always she'd craved, and demanded, verbal and monetary proof of someone's devotion to her; now none of it was necessary, and a damn good thing, too, cause if this was going to be another one of those relationships, Jackie'd hang up her lucky stilettos for good and switch teams altogether. Her first boyfriend had made her feel pretty; the second had encouraged her to toughen up. But Fez...Fez somehow had managed to give her stability. In his arms, Jackie felt safe, like the world could blow up around them but they'd still come out unscathed. Now that primal one-on-one chemistry between the two of them - the same thing that once had frightened her to no end - finally felt natural, and this tired little former rich girl finally felt a sense of...what was that thing Midge always used to babble about?...oh yeah, inner peace, or something. Right. A happy sigh escaped as her leg shifted over to slide its way in between her lover's toned thighs, against his rising heat; her fingers absently traced lines up and down his chest. She heard him murmur wordlessly, a sure sign she was getting to him. Jackie smiled and bit her lip; Fez smiled back, raising an eyebrow.

"Now what's gotten into you?"

"I can't help it, this just makes me so happy. _You_ make me happy." Her eyes closed as she breathed in the cool, piquant scent of his cologne. "And I really want to thank you."

"Mmm, for what, darling?"

"Oh, it sounds so sappy, but...for forgiving me when I was mean. For being so patient with me, and being a friend to me even when I wasn't being one for you, and just for...everything. I've said it before, I know, but I can't say it enough. You've never been a backup plan. You've always been my rock, Fez, always giving me a shoulder to cry on when I needed it, no matter what, and I'm just - God, I'm just so happy you decided to stay here with me."

She felt him hesitating and clenched up a little inside. "Don't even tell me you're having second thoughts, Fez."

"Now, see, what did I _just_ tell you last night? Did I not tell you I would not be so stupid as to lose you again? Didn't I?"

"Well, then, what's your deal? You're like, uptight all of a sudden."

Fez leaned away from her slightly, closing his eyes. "I need to confess something to you, Jacqueline."

The clenching worsened; Jackie wanted to cry. _Oh, no. Not another woman, not him too._

"When I told you I wouldn't be your 'backup plan' anymore..." Another, longer sip from the Mai Tai. Fez swallowed and reclined back to her. "How do I say this...I went to great lengths to keep that promise intact. I'm not proud of the things I did, but they are the truth."

"Okay," Jackie ventured. "I'm really, really afraid to ask, but what exactly did you do?"

Fez smiled, ruefully shaking his head. "Well, for one, I never hid in Donna's closet for any other purpose than for a place to sleep when I had none. Anything I could do to make myself seem like a freak, I did - including, unfortunately, letting you think I'd been bedding every available woman in Point Place."

Jackie stared at him. "You mean you weren't...and you didn't - but-but you were always in your bathrobe in the mornings!" She stammered, and frowned at how stupid that sounded aloud. He laughed. "True, but I never touched any of those girls. And when they tried touching me, I could never finish what they'd started, so we'd just end up talking all night. You of all people know how much I love the 'girl talk'."

Her jaw fell open. "Fez!" Her palm stung his chest; he recoiled. "That is not funny! That was disgusting to have to see, and I can't believe you - okay, well, I can believe you'd lie about something like that, cause that was always typical high-school-you behavior, but still! What the hell, _girl talk?_"

"Girl talk. Like at Vanstock, remember? It reminded me of the days when you and I used to park somewhere in someone else's car and talk for hours." His gaze trailed over to the swarming dance floor. "And I will be honest, I did manage to do it with Laurie, and with Nina, and poor Hilary, but in my mind and heart I was always seeing you in their place. That wasn't fair to any one of us." There was a heavy pause, and then a sigh. "Jackie, the truth is that I'd made the decision to leave long before the, um, argument. I'd talked to Fenton, well, really, I talked _at_ Fenton about changing the lease over to your name and everything not long after Kelso moved away. I'd been talking to Andrew about it; he'd had me convinced it was the right thing to do."

Jackie tried to piece this together in her mind and felt her head starting to hurt. "But _why?_" She watched as his eyes closed, as if he were in pain, and reached out a hand to comfort him. "Fezzy? Why did you do all those things, baby?"

"_Because_, Jackie, I couldn't take it anymore. I couldn't keep guessing your intentions, spending so much of my time obsessing over whether or not you truly wanted to be with me." He squinted a little and rubbed his forehead. "When you were the only one I'd ever wanted to be with."

Jackie sighed too, feeling heavy inside. So much wasted, she thought, and nestled back into his arms. "Fez. Fez, listen, I'm sorry too, okay? I'm sorry I went back to Michael. I'm sorry I went back to him _again_ even after you and I got together in the car, and I'm really, _really_ sorry about what happened with Hyde. I am. But Fez, I only _stayed _with him because you didn't seem to care about me anymore."

"Likewise."

Hot tears burned in Jackie's eyes. "I know. Hey, look, I thought we'd 'rewritten history' here, remember? Both of us screwed up, both of us paid for it and it's all totally over and done with, okay?" She patted his thigh and gazed up at him. "Fez, none of it changes the fact that you're still my best friend; I love you so much. I always have. Please, let's just let it go."

It took a while for the starry grin to resurface, but when it did, the relief felt so pure it could have made her levitate. "My Jackie, I've said it before and I'll say it again; I love you the most."

She giggled. "Let's just call it a draw."

"No, no, it's true." Then, in a lower, insinuating register: "I can prove it to you."

The outside world dissolved around her as he lifted her chin up to kiss her, lightly tasting her open mouth. Jackie eagerly reached for him and let herself melt away for a while...just for a little while...God, he tasted _so_ damned good...and ooh, the song was changing again, oh, this one was just _so _much sexier than those icky old Rolling Stones. Her body flushed as he wrapped her in his arms, possessing her, causing her head to spin.

"_Girl, close your eyes  
Let that rhythm get into you..."  
_

"Ay, my love," he breathed to her between hot, starving kisses, "any more of this and my needs will overwhelm us both, here in this booth."

"_Don't try to fight it  
There ain't nothin' that you can do_..."

"I'm up for it if you are," she breathed back, very discreetly straddling his thigh and rubbing herself against him in a slow rhythm. He kissed her hard in response; her cry escaped against his mouth as his hands gripped her by the ass to help her along. Tiny shocks of heat sizzled up through her sex into her loins, again and again. Jackie moaned for him, wanting so badly to wriggle out of her wet panties right there and then...no one would see if they were careful...would they?

"_Relax your mind  
Lay back and groove with mine_..."

"No...darling, wait. Wait." He pulled back, paused a moment to catch his breath, and delicately lifted her off his lap. "Not here." Fez nodded at the teeming, strobe-lit mass of dancers and took her hand. "Out on the floor."

Jackie drew back and squinted at him, trying to fan away the lust fogging her brain so she could process his words. "What...?" Do it on the floor? But there were way too many _people_ out there...God, she wasn't that much of an exhibitionist!

"_You got to feel that heat  
And we can ride the boogie,"_

Fez winked at her.

_  
"Share that beat of love!"_

A knife of logic sliced a path through the lust-fog; Jackie brightened with a big euphoric grin. "_Oh!_" She blurted, her hands fluttering excitedly at his chest. "Oh, Fezzy, I simply _love_ the way you think."

He grinned back at her as they threaded through the crowd, to the center of the glowing dance floor. "Of course you do."

"_I wanna rock with you (all night)  
Dance you into day (sunlight)..."_

Jackie strutted ahead a pace or two, then whirled around and let her lover embrace her form from behind, cradling his head against where her neck curved into her shoulder. One surprisingly strong hand slowly, slowly traced its way from the swell of her hip, up across her delicate ribs, up to caress and cup her breast possessively. She felt his breath on her skin, his hips mimicking the swaying rhythm and encouraging her to follow suit.

"_I wanna rock with you (all night)  
We're gonna rock the night away..."_

She felt his body tense as his arm stretched out for her; Jackie picked up the cue and spun twice, three times, before whirling back into his arms as if gravity had no hold on her.

"_Out on the floor  
There ain't nobody there but us..."_

Fez laughed softly and dipped her without warning, letting her head fall back and the rest of her arch elegantly backwards. Jackie let out a squeal, giggling. She closed her eyes and responded with her body, undulating herself up and against his gyrating hips, his hard stomach, finally up to his chest before fixing him with a filthy, telling gaze. "If I didn't know better, Fez, I'd think you were trying to tell me something," Jackie purred to him over the music, coming close enough for their noses to just barely touch.

"_Girl, when you dance,  
There's a magic that must be love..."_

Fez leaned in to brush his lips against hers, teasing her until her lips opened to accept him, taste him, drink him in. Her head spun as the kiss quickly deepened, turning into something robust, exhibitionistic. His tongue flicked hers; she moaned into his mouth and pulled him closer. Still their hips followed the song's rhythm in sync, and a throbbing deep inside her followed suit.

"_Just take it slow  
'Cause we got so far to go..."_

"Now do you believe?" he asked her in a luscious murmur, biting at her earlobe while both his hands drifted down for a quick squeeze of her posterior; Jackie gasped as his mouth sucked at the tender flesh of her neck, tormenting her, turning her sex to molten liquid heat. She tried not to moan, tried to form coherent speech, forced her lips and vocal chords to obey her commands.

"Believe what, lover?"

"_When you feel that heat  
Yeah, we're gonna ride the boogie..."  
_

"That I'll do anything for you. Anything _to_ you. Anything to satisfy you, make you happy. I want to spend my life by your side."

_  
"Share that beat of love..."_

"Oh, Fezzy..." Jackie wanted to cry; she reached up and kissed him hard instead. "God, that's just all I've ever wanted. Someone who would promise not to leave me. Someone I could trust to _keep_ that promise. And you did."

"_I wanna rock with you (all night)  
Dance you into day (sunlight)..."_

Another, gentler kiss. "I'm just sorry I didn't promise you sooner."

"I don't care," she whispered back with a smile. "Not anymore."

_  
"I wanna rock with you (all night)  
We're gonna rock the night away..."_

She twirled out of his arms and traced a line across his shoulders as she trotted behind him, raking her nails lightly down his back. Their bodies collided once more; she felt Fez's hands on her everywhere, teasing her in response. One hand made its way under Jackie's skirt, easing her thigh up against his hip so she could feel him, right there. Their eyes met; something quivered low inside Jackie's stomach. Everything in her throbbed to the music as his hardness rubbed against her rhythmically. Distantly she was aware of eyes, countless pairs of eyes watching them and devouring every move they made, but the taste of him and the fire it stoked inside made her careless. Let them watch. Let them see what most people could only dream of having, cause Jackie Burkhardt had it now, and dammit, Jackie Burkhardt had earned every last bit. Fez had, too, simply by being the insanely patient accessory to her past crimes. They deserved this. This was their moment - no, this was their _celebration_.

"_And when the groove is dead and gone... yeah  
You know that love survives  
So we can rock forever, on..."_

He spoke her name then, his voice strained, lust-ridden. Jackie blinked at him.

"What would you say," he ventured, "if I told you there was a place we could have some...privacy?"

"Privacy, huh?" She leaned into his neck, craving his heat. "Hmm. I'd say that I'd love for you to show me this place."

"You...would not think I only want you for sex?"

"Um,_ no_. You obviously don't."

"Then come with me," he answered, kissing her hand and leading her discreetly off of the floor.

Strobe lights flashed all over, scorching Eric's retinas no matter which way he turned. His precious Donna, on the other hand - delectable, sloshed, undulating Donna - was oblivious to this, still stumbling around in an attempt to dance and forcing Eric to keep preventing her from colliding with anyone nearby.

"Okay, doll, song's over, time to go sit down," he shouted over the thumping beat, unable to help cracking a smile at that sweet, intoxicated happiness on her face. Donna squinted at him a moment and then guffawed.

"But I _like_ this music! I wanna keep dancin'!"

"You hate this song!"

"Nu-_uh!_ I'm too drunk to care, _everything_ sounds good now!" She let out a little happy yelp, sweeping both arms out and smacking a tall, built, slightly familiar man dancing with his tall and disturbingly spindly-looking friend. Both gentlemen glared at her, the spindly one assuming a haughty, hands-on-hips stance. Eric recognized him immediately and cast his eyes to the ceiling. Donna giggled.

"Sorry!" She crowed at them, grinning and swaying in place. "I'm sorry - oh, wow, hey guys! Wow, you two really make a _beautiful_ couple..."

"Oh. Well. Isn't that just so sweet of you, honey," Fenton retorted, his tone oozing with disdain. His glare turned on Eric for a few uncomfortable seconds. "Don't get me wrong, I'm...happy...that you were able to trade back down and all, but do us _all _a favor and keep her the hell off our dance floor? Some of us want to seduce each other in peace. Come on, Chip."

And before Eric could come up with a rational reply, the two men linked hands and pushed forth, disappearing into the massive crowd. Pain started throbbing in his head in time to the song; he paused to rub his forehead. "Okay, Donna, what do you say we go sit down so I can, um...buy you another drink?"

To his relief, the redhead brightened at the idea and clutched onto his lean arm. "Yay! Can I get a Long Island Iced Tea this time? I _love_ those things...remember I had them on our first date?"

"Yep. I'd just bought those shoes, too," he said, reminiscing. "But as long as it was you hurling on them, I didn't really care."

The closer they drew to their table, the harder Eric's heart began pounding against his sternum. That little brass circle was burning a hole in his pocket; he had to be crazy, really, he had to be, to try and pull off yet another ring with her. What was he thinking? Where was the Stupid Helmet when he needed it?

And why weren't Fez and Jackie still sitting where he'd left them only five, ten minutes ago?

"Goddamn it," he muttered, wiping a sheen of perspiration from his forehead. Donna giggled again.

"Uh-oh. Looks like our pals the lovebirds flew away to find another ne-est..."

"Apparently." He felt flushed; was the room spinning? "Oh, crap, crap, I promised the bouncer I'd keep them out of trouble - crap, where the hell _are_ they? Donna, what are we going to do?"

Donna adopted a sympathetic pout and massaged his arm gently. "It's okay, Eric. If we can't see them, maybe nobody else can, either."

Eric again felt the ring burning his thigh, urging him on, and sighed. Whatever. His friends could do what they wanted; he wasn't about to go off searching for them, not right now when he had everything he loved right in the proverbial palm of his hand. He waited as Donna slid into the booth and gingerly sat down beside her.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right, baby. At least now we're alone," he conceded, taking a deep breath and digging as discreetly as he could in the folds of his pocket. Donna watched with a buzzed, vague interest. Eric swallowed and cleared his throat, grateful the song had broken down into an instrumental bridge, and forced himself to speak.

"I brought you back something," he said, watching the redhead's face. She smiled.

"Yeah? Whad'ya bring me, neighbor boy? Cause I know it ain't a drink...yet."

Eric forced his heart back down his throat and produced the little decorated box. "Just something one of my students made for me," he said. "And we've had really weird, really bad luck with this kinda thing in the past, but that's actually what made me decide to get it made for you."

He lifted the lid; Donna leaned forward for a better look. "A ring?"

"Not just any ring. Not a promise ring, or a man-ring, or an engagement band or anything like that. Nothing heavy or anchor-like," Eric stammered, smiling. _Keep going, Forman. Now or never again._ "It's a _sankofa_ bird," he said as Donna plucked the tiny brass trinket from its pillow with excessive care. "A symbol of learning from the past. See, the bird's flying forward while looking back - like, looking to the past to create a better future."

"Ooh, symbolic," Donna breathed, eyes alight. The pressure in Eric's chest eased up enough for him to continue. "Yep. It's worn as a good luck charm throughout Africa, as they say, 'to bring wisdom and prosperity in the future.' I, uh, I thought of you when I heard about it. And once I decided to ask my student for one, I also decided it'd be best to...um..." Cripes, his throat was closing. If Red could only see him now...Eric forged ahead. "I decided I had to give it to you in person."

Donna looked up from the ring, her eyes shining now. "You did?"

"I did," he confirmed quietly. "I had to, Donna." He stopped, looking away; her awe was almost too much to bear. "I don't believe in reincarnation. I've only got one life, this one. It isn't worth it if I don't at least try to make things right."

Donna stared, beginning to smile. "So does this mean we're...um...you know, again?"

"Only if that's what you want." Eric looked point blank into her eyes, deep blue pools presently glittering green and purple from the surrounding disco balls. "I don't care where we live, I don't care about any of that. I just want to be with you; that's...really all that ever mattered to me. And now I know that."

She peered at him, eyes narrowed. "Are you...sure, sure?"

He grinned, holding back a snicker. "Yes, yes."

There was a pregnant pause just before Eric was toppled over by her sweet, soft weight throwing itself on top of him. "Oh, skinny neighbor boy, I love you too!" His face was assaulted by rum-flavored kisses, hard ones that grew softer the closer her lips came to his. One more kiss landed right on his mouth; Eric reached for her and savored it, savored Donna's heat, her taste, her sweet, drunken love, and secretly hoped she'd remember all this come the next morning. But for tonight - hell, for right now - sweet drunken love was all he needed in life.

"Make love to me, neighbor," she whispered, pressing her damp, perfumed breasts up to his face.

"Here?" Eric asked, already feeling himself stiffening and his resolve vanishing into utter abandon. Donna's husky, passionate giggle and her palm working his shaft through starched polyester was his answer. Eric closed his eyes and embraced her, pulling her out of view and gave himself up to her, ecstatic, breathless. He was sure at some point he'd whispered more vows of love as their bodies joined, and realized as the throbbing erupted in hot searing pleasure that there was such a thing as heaven after all.

Jackie held tight to Fez's gentle hand and followed him blindly, through the throngs of sweaty, grooving club goers, through the smoky darkened corridor they'd entered from, through a section of empty wall that still boasted the old glittering streamers to a hidden room lit only by a pair of giant lava lamps. Her eyes adjusted to the dim light and tried not to see the smattering of amorous couples taking advantage of the semi-private hideaway. Jackie squinted at the darkness.

"Ohmigod." She almost laughed aloud. "Fez? Where _are_ we?"

"Actually, I don't know. I just noticed it on our way inside," Fez whispered back, keeping her close to his body as they sought out a more secluded area: a booth with a marble table off to the side, behind the lamps. "We don't have to _do_ anything, if you don't want to," he added as they sat down, anticipating her unease. "But I thought...you know...it might be fun to..."

"No," Jackie said quickly, noticing more than a few couples leaving for the dance floor and smiled to herself. Now being careful no longer applied. "No, Fez, it's fine! Actually...it's kind of perfect. Not too public and at the same time - "

"Someone _could_ be watching us."

His lips were on her neck again, teasing, nibbling. Jackie inhaled sharply. "Then we'd better put on a hell of a show," she purred, rubbing herself against him. She felt his growl vibrate on her skin and swallowed a nervous giggle as the straps of her dress were slid down past her shoulders, farther, past her breasts. Teasing fingertips lightly traced the curve of her bare neck; Jackie turned and shivered into Fez's welcoming arms, cradling his head to her chest as the music continued to throb.

"_I wanna rock with you  
I wanna groove with you..."_

"I'm sorry I hurt you," he whispered to her, taking her into his mouth. Jackie shuddered, raking her nails across his shoulder as he suckled. Her legs wrapped around his waist. "I told you, there's nothing to apologize for, baby."

"But I want to make it up to you." Those lips, God, those soft, tantalizing lips, moved on to her other breast, gently biting, sucking. Her head slowly rolled back as her hands clenched at him, her throat constricting while her entire being seemed to melt from the inside out.

"_I wanna..._rock_ (all night)..."_

"Fez..."

"_With you, girl..." _

"Mmm, you're close, aren't you?"

"_Sunlight..."_

Her hips bucked against his waist, pressing her hot center up to his flesh. "Yes...baby, please..."

"_Rock with you, rock with you...yeah..."_

"Come here, then."

Her limbs for a few moments were weakened, reluctant to obey for fear of letting the rest of her crash to the floor. His hand steadied her as she straightened, shifting out and away from his body so she could lift her dress and let the panties be pulled away, slowly. Jackie closed her eyes, trembling uncontrollably. Her flesh went hot at the feel of his lips, kissing the swell of her hip, along a curve of the backside, slipping underneath to kiss her again in the most intimate place possible. A spasm of pleasure shot through her core, paralyzing her.

"_Dance the night away..."_

"Baby..." Her thighs slid a little further apart, her hips rocking with unconscious rhythms. "Please."

"Patience, my pet," Fez murmured from behind her as one hand slipped through her legs to stroke her. A gasp tore itself from her throat as her entire being throbbed for him, begging to be filled, to be satisfied. After a few hot, desperate seconds she realized what he was doing and smiled, arranging herself so that she straddled him backwards.

"_I wanna rock with you, yeah..._

_Dance you into day (sunlight)..."_

"Oh, praise the gods for cheerleading," she heard him stammer. Jackie couldn't help giggling out loud. "You're so sweet," she whispered, acutely aware of the sweat trickling down the small of her back and the incendiary heat of his tip teasing her entrance. "God, I want you, Fez, I need you inside me."

"_I wanna rock with you, all night..."_

"I love you, my Jackie, my precious goddess," he groaned, his words strained with the first welling of absolute blind lust as her inner walls engulfed him in throbbing liquid heat; Jackie bit back another, louder cry as she sank onto him, taking him in as deep as she could and holding him there.

"_Rock the night away..."_

"Love you...too..." She managed, feeling herself throbbing around him, feeling his base grinding against her in time to the music. Her reasoning obliterated, Jackie rocked her hips, her mind and body now possessed with the need to be driven over the edge. Fez gripped her hips for control and leaned her back against him, thrusting slowly. Her cry escaped through clenched teeth.

"_Feel that heat_

_Feel the beat, all night..."_

Jackie reached behind her to grab the back of his head, kissing him hard, violently. Their hips thrust upwards, hard, as one, as their tongues licked and thrashed one another. "Now," she murmured to him, pleading. "I trust you." He breathlessly nodded affirmation. Jackie steadied herself and carefully leaned forward to grasp the marble table, letting him dominate their rhythm. Letting him lead, she thought with a lusty flush of heat. Something inside her twinged, throbbed in pleasure; Jackie groaned and felt him shift up to meet her, slowly driving into her at slightly altered angles, testing her, letting the tingling build. Jackie gasped, squeezing her eyes shut.

"_Rock you into _day...!"

"Harder," she growled as he hit her spot once, twice. He complied; her fingernails scratched desperately at the table's surface.

"_Sun_light..._"_

The tingling exploded in a rhythm of searing throbs, consuming her; only with supreme effort did Jackie manage to keep from screaming his name as his thrusts came harder, faster, less rhythmic and more erratic as both their bodies begged for release.

"_I wanna, rock...all night..."_

His fingers returned to her clit, indulging in a few slow loving strokes and then a gentle press. Jackie's jaw clenched against another scream as the force of her orgasm thrust her forward, her nerve endings shattering in pleasure as she felt Fez give one last deep, explosive thrust.

"_Rock the night away..."_

Her body still throbbing, Jackie arched and gulped cool air into her lungs, her eyes wide and watering. Behind her, Fez groaned with the relief of release and nipped appreciatively at her earlobe. She reached behind her to cradle his jaw against her neck, willing her heartbeat to return to normal. The beats thrumming from the club's sound system were again merging into a different song.

"You believe it now, don't you, love?" He asked her after a few moments had passed. Jackie closed her eyes and smiled, panting out a tiny laugh. "_Okay_, baby, okay, I do. I believe you now."

"You are sure?"

"Yes, Fez, I'm sure." She craned her neck at an angle to kiss him, rather breathless still. "Ohhh, yes, I'm sure."

**4:02 am,**

**January 2, 1980,**

**Michael Kelso's kitchen,**

**Chicago, Illinois...**

"_What are you going to tell her?"_

_Hyde glanced over at his best friend and puffed out a little insecure breath. "I don't know, man," he admitted, his guts tensing up at the lie. "I'm thinking about letting the El Camino make the final decision; it pulls to the right, marriage. It pulls to the left.." He grinned slightly. "Nudie bar."_

_Eric shifted a little in his seat. "So you haven't decided?"_

_The comment induced a massive thrumming in his skull, as if it were stuck inside a speaker blasting Deep Purple. God, for a guy who wanted to be a teacher, Forman really wasn't all that bright, Hyde thought, blinking at that twig of a young man who'd been by his side most if not all of his life. Damn, she wasn't much, but she was enough. He knew when he was licked, and as far as Jackie was concerned, Hyde thought himself enough of a man to admit to it. He wasn't afraid of a challenge. "No," he said simply, feeling quite relaxed despite the thrumming, "I've decided."_

_To his right, the kitchen door opened with a soft swishing sound. "Steven?"_

_Kitty Forman was creeping into view, her face masking a deep, hidden apprehension. "Jackie stopped by and asked me to give you this...note."_

_Hyde blinked at the ceiling for a second, willing himself to go numb, then forced his torso upright and plucked the envelope from Kitty's waiting hand. Somehow he knew already. He just knew. And he could already hear the echoes of her voice, all her transparent pleas. _

"Steven, this is my dream come _true_, but you are the most important thing in the _world_ to me..."

_He slid a finger through the heart-shaped sticker, unfolded the scented stationery, carefully read each word, and swallowed his rage. "Says she took the job in Chicago," Hyde muttered, letting out a cough. "And she left this morning."_

"I'm willing to give it all up and stay here with you..."

_Lying bitch, he kept thinking. Stupid, patronizing, demanding little bitch. I should've seen this coming a mile away. Once again, I wasn't quick enough for you. Once again, I didn't immediately cave and give you exactly what you wanted, exactly when you wanted it. _

"But_ if _I do that...I need to know that we're going to get married..."

_What a crock of shit, Jackie, you knew _exactly _how I felt about you; you didn't need a ring, a bouquet and a blood test to prove it. You knew every dirty detail of my past - the only person besides friggin' Forman that I'd ever done that with, for Christ's sake - and Christ also knows how many times you'd yakked my ears off about those slimy, money-laundering parents of yours. I tried and I tried to understand your side, even when you were clearly insane and trying to take me with you. I even purposely dogged two of my best friends, people who are brothers to me, just so I could be with you the way you wanted me to be. I did everything I possibly could to be there for you, and for what? _

"And our future is happening now."

_All so you could train me like a dog, so I'd provide you with the perfect little suburban picket-fence nuclear-family lifestyle you've always craved. You could never just be grateful for the good things you already had; no, Jackie, you_ always _had to have more. Nothing I _ever_ did was good enough for you. Fuck, I practically crucified myself for you, every day in every way I could think of and it was still never, ever enough. All so you could simply ditch me in the end, like I always thought you would. All of it for nothing. I knew it wasn't really me that you wanted to be with, Jackie. I knew it all along._

The pen ricocheted off the surface of the kitchen table and bounced onto the linoleum floor with a tinny cracking sound. Hyde buried his face in his hands for the umpteenth time in as many waking hours and swallowed a scream, wanting more than anything to smoke the endlessly looping sounds of "It Ain't Me, Babe" out of his mind but he'd used up the last of his reserves around two A.M. Christ only knew what time it was now. He gazed down at the slightly tattered, scribbled, mostly empty notepad and blinked his aching eyelids, wondering if he'd ever be able to sleep again.

He had to do this. He had to admit to himself that he'd brought this _on_ himself. Not only that, but he had to accept, for better or worse, how weird it felt knowing Fez and Jackie belonged together. Hell, it had felt weird enough seeing him with Patti, let alone with _her_. The fact that he'd known in his guts all along, being ignorant about it, was proof enough. Never ignore the Zen instinct, he thought, never again. Not for Sam, not for Laurie, not for Jackie, not for anyone. And never let the Zen get in the way of his buddies, his real family. Never again.

"Mornin'."

Hyde's tired eyes shifted blankly over to Kelso's shuffling, towel-clad form. "Still dark out."

"Still morning. And I still gotta get ready for work."

He recoiled from the sight of his friend getting down on all fours to rummage for something underneath the sink, and instantly flashed back to finding him in Jackie's hotel room in the same disturbing state of undress. Probably in that same damn towel.

"Goddamn, Kelso! Don't you ever wear clothes, moron?"

"_Not_ when I go to bed or when I get _out_ of bed, no!" Kelso teetered back onto his feet, grasping a cord-dangling coffee pot in triumph. "And if you're gonna crash here, dude, you might wanna try and get used to it. Hell, you've seen me in the buff enough to go blind - "

"I think I just _did_ go blind, man!"

"So why are you being a big whiny girl about it?"

"Because I haven't slept in two, three days and your naked body is traumatizing to me."

Kelso's features contorted into a gentle smirk. "I knew it."

"Knew what?"

"Don't be a whiny girl. You know what."

Hyde's chest deflated with an exasperated, groaning sigh. "Think what you want, Kelso, go ahead. You're probably right anyway."

Kelso spotted the discarded pen on the floor and retrieved it, handing it to Hyde. "I hope you're not tryin' to get her back or something."

"Dude, I _don't_ want her _back_. She gave me mental malaria, and besides, I wouldn't do that to Fez. They seem to like, love each other or something," Hyde replied, yawning. He then blinked and looked again at Kelso. "Wait, why would you think that was what I was doing?"

Kelso stood on tiptoe and swung a cupboard open, presumably to reach a jar of coffee. The wood muffled his voice. "'Member when I told you Brooke and I split?"

"Yeah."

Kelso shut the cupboard door shut, shrugging. "Well, let's just say you might wanna invest in some ear plugs or something, cause she's probably gonna come over tonight."

The grin on his face told Hyde everything. "That's cool. How'd you manage that with Evil Incarnate still living off of you?"

Another shrug as too much coffee was carelessly applied to the bottom of the pot. "I did what you're doin' there. I wrote her a letter."

Hyde looked back down at the paper. "No kidding."

"Yeah. You want some coffee?"

"Thanks."

Listlessly, he watched Kelso fill the pot with water, turn it on and set it aside, then click on the radio that sat on a shelf above the sink. A loud bubbling hiss from the coffee pot clashed with the low, jangling strains of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers as Kelso pulled out the chair across from Hyde. "Anyway," he said, plunking his naked weight down, "I figured I'd write down what I wanted to tell her, cause, y'know, when I'm thinking and talking at the same time the words never come out in the right order, and it just gets me more trouble that way."

"And it worked, huh?"

"Sure did." Kelso bragged, his words stretching as they expanded into a lazy yawn. He leaned back in the chair and scratched the back of his head. "But you just said you don't want Jackie back."

"Very good." Hyde picked up the pen and bit the end, thinking. "But I've got hatchets to bury with her."

Kelso paused in mid-stretch, looking startled. "Uh, Hyde? Law enforcement officer in the room."

He scowled. "Not literally, you shaved ape! I mean I didn't say some stuff to her that, I don' t know, maybe I should have. That's it."

"Oh." That trademark goofy grin spread back over Kelso's face. "I get it now. Yeah, that's a good idea, man." He got up after a moment to pour the coffee, placing one of the steaming mugs in front of Hyde's notebook. "Yeah, cause see, me and Jackie got to sit down and talk stuff out after we broke up, and actually got to be friends and stuff, but you and her..." Kelso trailed off, shrugging ruefully. Hyde nodded, inferring the rest.

"Yeah." He paused. "You don't happen to have an envelope or something, do ya?"

"I even have stamps," Kelso said proudly, and scampered off into the living room.

While his officer buddy was busy digging through his paper-smothered excuse of a desk, Hyde eased himself to a standing position and pried his skinny, weathered wallet from the back pocket of his jeans. He grunted and took a few deep breaths, then opened the wallet and wedged a spanking new plastic card out of the first insert, holding the gleaming proof of a bank-issued, government-approved identity at an angle. Hadn't actually been used yet; Hyde had been still trying to get used to the idea of possessing an actual credit history all his own. He smirked. She'd 've been so damn proud. And then she would have promptly set to work at driving said history into the ground. Hyde shook his head, sat down, and cracked open the yellow pages, phone in one hand and his new line of credit in the other.

By the time Kelso was darting back into the kitchen, holding a slim tab of stamps up in toothy triumph, an elaborate twelve-pound basket of fine Godiva candies had been ordered, purchased, and put on the next UPS truck to a certain love nest on the outskirts of Point Place. Hyde put his nearly-empty mug down and glanced up from his nearly-full notebook page.

"I found 'em!" Kelso crowed, flinging the little paper onto the table. "They're kinda tiny, but who cares? Don't worry about payin' me back for 'em or nothin, cause they were a total bargain."

Hyde examined the row of two-cent stamps and cleared his throat. "Nah, I'm not worried, know why? All of these combined wouldn't send a strand of my magic 'fro." He shook his head again at Kelso's obvious confusion and made a mental note to go to the post office tomorrow. "Never mind, Kelso. It's the thought that counts."

Kelso's frown softened just a little as he tried to make sense of Hyde's answer. "Okay...Hyde, buy your own stamps if you want, but you're wasting your money, man."

Hyde chose to ignore this, intently re-reading the contents of the page as his friend scuttled back to the other end of the kitchen and bent to retrieve a frying pan from underneath the stove. This time Hyde kept his eyes glued to the paper in front of him, rereading intently. Kelso dropped the pan on the stove with a huge clatter, twirled around, and swung the refrigerator door open.

"So how's that letter comin'?" Crapshoes asked, his voice muffled from behind the fiberglass. Hyde contemplated his own handwriting and coughed into a clenched fist. "Not bad."

"Wanna read it to me?"

"Not really."

"Oh, c'mon!" Kelso again bent to rummage for something; Hyde kept his eyes on the paper this time. "That's what friends do, Hyde, friends share!"

"Kelso, it would bore you," he replied. "It's just a bunch of words tossed together."

"Hyde." Crapshoes closed the door, cradling a carton of eggs, and rolled his eyes. "It's the thought that counts."

"Fine. But if you start laughing, I'm gonna beat you over the head with that frying pan. Deal?"

Kelso grinned, nodding, and cracked an egg on the side of the pan. Hyde cleared his throat again.

_"'Dear Jackie:_

_Hey, guess who. Look, I know this is a little messed up, cause by the time you read this, I'll have been long since rendered sterile by Betsy's little fists and you and Fez there will be warm in your own bed. That's good; that's the way it ought to be. You guys deserve all the happiness in the world, you really do. But I think you oughta know why I decided to leave in the first place, like, without saying anything. One good turn deserves another._

_I want you to know that I know, about you and Fez, and about me being your rebound. I felt it the whole time; I just couldn't put my finger on what the feeling meant. But that's okay. I mean, in the past it would have totally pissed me off, but I don't care anymore; there is absolutely no point in either of us trying to be something we're not. You're loud, ambitious, totally destructive. I'm silent, lazy, totally neglectful. I'm not up to the kind of compromising you need, though I did try, Jackie. And I would have kept on trying, too. But you leaving me for that job before I could give you any answer was the last straw. It wasn't so much finding you with Taternuts here, it was more the fact that you just couldn't bear to have my needs enter the picture too. It was always about you and you alone. I'm really sorry if it hurt you to see me happy with another woman, but damn, Jackie, you left first. Let's get that straight right now. You left me. You ended up moving in with him. And now I know you really meant it when you told me you didn't love me._

_So I'll tell you what I'm gonna do, even if you don't give a shit. I'm going to let go; in fact, I already have. I'm going to forgive rather than forget the past. And I'm going to rededicate my energies. I hope you've got it in you to do the same. Maybe it's true what they say: with every end comes a new beginning. I guess that's our final lesson, grasshopper._

_Take care, and hey, tell Fez he's still a good guy. Oh, and that I'm sorry I stole his woman._

_Enjoy the candy,_

_- Steve.'"_

"Heh," Kelso laughed to himself, whisking the egg while it fried. "That's one long, wordy burn, there, _Steve_."

"Kelso," Hyde warned, his forehead vein twitching in anger. Kelso froze, deer-in-headlights style. "Uh, uh, I, uh, Taternuts! It's still funny, what?"

"You _lie - _"

"Hey, that letter wasn't bad," Laurie interrupted loudly, startling Hyde out of the overpowering urge to leap up and punch Kelso in the eye. "Not bad at all. I'd forgive you, totally."

"Yeah, uh, thanks for the unbiased opinion," Hyde replied unsteadily, slurping the last of the brew from his mug and setting it down. A smile crossed his face as Betsy tottered into view, eyes bright and smile brighter. "Shouldn't she still be in bed or something?"

Laurie yawned and fluffed her tousled hair. "That's what _I_ said." She shuffled over to the coffee pot and poured a cup, ushering Betsy over to Hyde with one hand. "But she's totally got a mind of her own. Here, Betsy-Wetsy, go see Uncle Orphan, Daddy's cooking and it's dangerous."

Hyde smirked and lifted the toddler onto his knee, bouncing her gently. "Yeah. Don't go near Daddy and fire. That's a lesson every kid should learn, especially your father."

Kelso let out an indignant squawk. "I can too handle fire!"

"You burned down your own academy, Crapshoes."

Kelso twitched and flailed out a pointed finger. "See? Case in point, man, it was _on fire_!"

"Because you set it ablaze."

"_How _can a man possibly be expected to resist a match and a fresh bag of dog - "

"Okay!" Laurie exclaimed, disgusted. "Literally too early for that shit. I'm gonna take a shower. You two keep her away from any open source of heat, I'll be back in a while."

In her wake she left a tiny, lingering silence that the Heartbreakers' song briefly stepped up to fill. Hyde listened, silently singing along, bouncing little Betsy's weight to the beat.

"_Two cars parked on the overpass_

_Rocks hit the water like broken glass..."_

Kelso gave the eggs a final series of flips and grinned over at his old friend. Geez, Hyde thought, he's worn that same stupid grin through, like, every moment of his life. Even when he cried, he still kinda grinned. What a moron. We're _both_ morons. We totally deserve each other.

"_Shoulda known right then it was too good to last_

_God, it's such a drag when you're livin' in the past."_

A plate of strangely appetizing scrambled eggs was set in front of him, followed by a tiny bowl of cereal for Betsy. Michael Kelso sat back down across from Hyde with his own breakfast, and said nothing. Hyde nodded his gratitude and began to eat, helping Betsy do the same every so often. An apology for Jackie was on the tip of Hyde's tongue, but he decided not to voice it. It wasn't worth stirring up old, bad memories for. It certainly wasn't worth upsetting this shaky, newfound feeling of balance. Kelso was, of course, still grinning, and now while it was just the two - well, the three of them, but Betsy wouldn't squeal - Hyde allowed himself to grin back. Just for a moment. And that was the moment he felt his Zen, long ago scattered to the whims of other women, come creeping back to him in full force.

This was all he needed in life, really. A place to sleep, a little nourishment, good music, and someone - hell, maybe a few someones - who didn't care, and wouldn't judge him, if he wasn't a perfect person. This, Hyde concluded as he happily stabbed at the egg with his fork, was what he needed the most.

**Twenty minutes earlier,**

**In Eric Forman's Vista Cruiser,**

**Nearing Point Place, Wisconsin...**

"Donna." Jackie's voice struggled to rise above the blaring spurts of radio static. "Donna, will you _please_ stop fiddling with that radio? We're going deaf back here."

Her friend gave a cavernous yawn and patted a depleted-looking Eric on his shoulder. "Sorry, Jackie, but I for one would rather go deaf than become road pizza from this one falling asleep at the wheel. Besides, I gotta do something to drown that friggin' disco out of my head."

"Oh, you suck at lying, Donna, you know that?" Jackie retorted, giggling. "All we had to do was get a few rum and Cokes in you and bam, out comes your inner dancing queen. Yours _and_ Eric's."

Fez snickered and shook his head; Eric's mouth fell open as he mentally groped around for something to say. "Hey, look, it's not my fault I was off the beat...I just...I told you, I can't _do it _right without the wheels!"

"Own up, 'Rainbow,' you ought to be thanking us right now," Fez replied over the din, aiming a sardonic wink in Jackie's direction. "Someone needed to be shown how it's done out there, eh?"

Roaring static finally gave way to the sound of Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers crackling through the Cruiser's aging front speakers. Satisfied, Donna settled back into her seat with a smirk. "Sure, yeah, it was all us. Had nothing to do with your song coming on or any insatiable need to be the center of attention. Nothing at all."

"Nope." Jackie grinned and gratefully curled up in her boyfriend's embrace. Fez gave her a gentle squeeze, appreciating her warmth while at the same time inwardly struggling to calm his nervous stomach. Stop it he kept thinking. Everything's going to be fine. Just relax.

"_Well, it was nearly summer we sat on your roof _

_Yeah, we smoked cigarettes and we stared at the moon..."_

"You know what we should do?"

He glanced down at his love, watching the reflections of passing cars' headlights play over her flawless features. "We should open our own dance studio one day," she said, snuggling down into his lap. "Wouldn't that be fun, baby?"

"_And I showed you stars you never could see..."_

"A dance studio?" He repeated, contemplating this. Jackie giggled tiredly.

"Yeah! C'mon, Fezzy, don't you think it'd be fun teaching old couples how to tango, help them rekindle their love?"

"_Babe, it couldn't have been that easy to forget about me."_

The same headlight reflections lighting Jackie's face was glinting off of the tiny silver bird on Donna's finger, briefly catching Eric's attention. He placed his palm over Donna's hand, daring to cradle it gently. She looked over at him and smiled a bit, then glanced away. Sure was nice not to have to hash anything out anymore, he thought, feeling his shoulders lighten and exhaustion taking over his cognitive functions. He began to sing along with dramatic abandon, snickering every time he noticed Donna cracking up. Sure was nice, after all the years spent proving his manhood, to truly feel his age again.

"_Time meant nothing anything seemed real _

_Yeah, you could kiss like fire and you made me feel..."_

Fez was singing too, albeit under his breath to soothe his dancing nerves. Jackie released her seatbelt and curled up in his lap while he stroked her hair absently. He swallowed hard, fighting the lump in his throat and ignoring the invisible dragons beating their wings against his stomach lining. It's okay to be afraid, he told himself. She is a terrifying entity, but now? She is yours and you are hers. And it doesn't matter what happens now; no one can take this moment away from us. Jackie has told you so in her own words, fool; hope springs eternal.

"_Like every word you said was meant to be _

_It couldn't have been that easy to forget about me."_

He drifted off, still singing, still hearing the other two occupants singing along with him, only becoming aware again when the Cruiser rolled to a stop outside his apartment complex. Jackie raised her head, blinking drowsily; Fez roused himself so he could lead her out of the vehicle safely. Eric and Donna grinned out at them from inside the car.

"So we should do this again sometime," Donna offered, her sunny smile waning. "Like, soon."

"Yeah," Jackie called back in a sleep-rasped voice. "We will. Don't worry."

Fez had the notion that if he'd been more awake, he might have possessed enough presence of mind to actually worry, that there were infinite little reasons to be worried. So much had ended, so much had begun, and everything, he mused while swaying on his feet, was constantly in motion, moving forward. There wouldn't be any more circles, really, in the Forman's legendary basement. Not many chances left for all of them to go out together for a good dine-and-dash promotion, or a Tad Nugent show, or a Canadian beer run. Fez had the feeling that all six of them wouldn't be hanging out again the way they used to do, and that glimmer of realization unsettled him deeply. Still, he mused, the future was wide open, and one way or another, everyone always found their way back to each other. Everyone cared too much about each other not to. That much Fez knew was a given.

"I'll call you, Jackie," Donna promised as the Cruiser began to roll away. "Okay? When we get to Madison. I'll call you!"

Fez glanced down at the one constant in his not-so-new American life, Jackie, as she waved to the two old friends leaving them behind. He waved, too, then turned her towards their house as the familiar car disappeared from view. Jackie gave a sad little sigh in his arms.

"She'll remember," Fez assured her, rubbing her shoulder a little as he opened the door and led her inside. "And if by chance she does not, you can drag her number out of Bob and harass her until she does."

Jackie smiled tiredly. "She'll remember."

"And we will all go out together again. Maybe even take Kelso and Hyde along for old times sake, what do you say to that?"

"Maybe," Jackie echoed at him, her eyes closing. Fez struggled to keep her upright. Together they climbed the stairs to their apartment, Jackie leaning most of her weight on Fez as he fumbled for his keys and singlehandedly wrestled the correct one into the deadbolt. He swung the door open and let her wander inside in the direction of his bedroom, watching for a moment to make sure she found her way safely before shutting and locking the door behind him. The apartment's darkness seemed to crowd him, swallowing him up in its pervading silence. Feeling exhaustion weighing him down, he shed his shirt, flung it onto the couch and followed the warm gentle glow now emanating from the bedroom. Jackie'd flipped on the twinkly lights again and was already waiting for him in their bed, clad only in her panties and nightshirt. Her smile sparkled.

"Come to bed, Fezzy," she purred affectionately, giving the empty space beside her a brisk little pat. A smile of his own tugged at the corner of his lips at the nickname; he shed his pants and gratefully climbed under the marshmallow-soft covers, happy just to leech her warmth, to bask in the sweetness that was his Jackie. Tonight they were a clean slate, released and reassured by one another's presence. She was whispering something to him as he slid an arm around her tiny waist, about how tired he'd made her tonight, how high she felt. Fez didn't recall if he'd mustered any kind of reply before relinquishing himself to the relief of sleep, but he did hold one thought in mind as he dozed, and one thought only.

Mr. Petty is a wise, wise man, Fez thought, listening to Jackie's breaths slowing. He is right. Even us losers keep a little bit of pride. We do, in fact, get lucky sometimes. He blinked sleepily and kissed the nape of Jackie's neck, then settled into sleep, for once completely unafraid of anything life could bring. Life, he figured, had decided to forgive them both.

_ fin_


End file.
